December 25, 2009
Friday: China soy futures settle up in light volume; lack of CBOT guidance
China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly higher Friday in light volume, with the Chicago Board of Trade providing little trading guidance overnight.
The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB9, or 0.2%, higher at RMB3,962 a tonne.
The contract opened higher and consolidated within a very tight range of RMB3,954-RMB3,973/tonne. Traders reduced their positions as they are cautious about the CBOT trend after the Christmas holiday.
CBOT counterparts consolidated around US$10 per bushel, with January soys ending 1 3/4 cents lower at US$9.99 1/2 Thursday.
However, a big rise in other local commodities market and weakness in the dollar overnight lent support to agricultural products.
Copper futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose to fresh 2009 highs while natural rubber futures reached a 14-month high of RMB23,605/tonne Friday.
There is limited room for the benchmark CBOT soy contract to fall further below US$10, as the market has digested an expected output increase in South America, said Galaxy Futures in a note, adding that U.S. soys are likely to stabilize after the holiday on support of global strong demand and rebound in outside markets.
Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 187,128 lots from 279,956 lots Thursday.
Open interest fell 4,614 lots to 359,470 lots Friday.
Corn futures, soymeal futures, palm oil futures and soyoil futures all settled higher.
Friday's settlement prices in yuan a tonne for benchmark contracts and volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):
Contract Settlement Price Change Volume
Soy Sep 2010 3,962 Up 9 187,128
Corn Sep 2010 1,854 Up 3 41,688
Soymeal Sep 2010 2,974 Up 8 1,001,354
Palm Oil Sep 2010 6,906 Up 48 424,856
Soyoil Sep 2010 7,738 Up 26 676,856
