Tuesday: China soy futures settle down; cautious ahead of USDA report
Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Tuesday in cautious trade after an overnight drop in the benchmark Chicago Board of Trade contract to almost $10 a bushel and ahead of the release of U.S. Department of Agriculture production forecasts market later in the global day.
The DCE's benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB31, or 0.8%, lower at RMB4,004 a metric tonne.
CBOT January soy fell 11 1/4 cents overnight to close at $10.01 3/4, prompting speculative selling at the opening in Dalian.
Funds came in to bargain hunt after the initial losses, but eventually retreated to the sidelines to wait for the data, said Gao Yanrong, an analyst with Dalu Futures.
The USDA is scheduled to release final 2009 production forecasts, updates to soy supply and demand tables and quarterly usage at 1330 GMT.
Analysts' estimated on average that the forecast for U.S. soy production in the 2009-10 marketing year will be 3.337 billion bushels, versus 3.319 billion in the USDA's November report.
Soy ending stocks for 2009 are expected at 237 million bushels, down 18 million from December's forecast.
Analysts said DCE soy are likely to consolidate within a tight range in the near term, pending clearer trading guidance.
Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 458,026 lots from 321,866 lots Monday.
Open interest rose 1,832 lots to 330,802 lots Tuesday.
Corn futures, soymeal futures, palm oil futures and soyoil futures all settled lower.
Following are Tuesday's settlement prices in yuan a metric 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 4,004 Dn 31 458,026
Corn Sep 2010 1,913 Dn 12 205,784
Soymeal Sep 2010 2,956 Dn 33 749,342
Palm Oil Sep 2010 7,046 Dn 110 499,472
Soyoil Sep 2010 7,730 Dn 112 706,256
