July 12, 2007

 

Thursday: China soybean futures settle up on CBOT; USDA report eyed

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Thursday after soybean contracts at Chicago Board of Trade set new record highs for the third session in a row overnight.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soybean contract settled RMB40 higher at RMB3,368 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 310,436 lots from 292,186 lots Wednesday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

Weather concerns, technical strength and longer-term fundamental support continued to buoy upside movement on CBOT, with July soybeans settling 2 cents higher at $8.91.

 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue its monthly supply and demand report later Thursday, and may cut soybean ending stocks.

 

"Domestic soybean contracts will continue to rise if the report is proved promising, but will consolidate if the report is not as good as they expected," said Gao Yanrong, a trader at Dalu Futures.

 

The average estimate by analysts pegs 2006-07 U.S. soybean ending stocks at 594 million bushels, down 16 million from June's forecast. The estimates range between 575 million and 610 million bushels.

 

The average of analyst estimates pegged 2007-08 marketing year-ending stocks at 221 million bushels, down from the June forecast of 320 million bushels. The estimates range from 176 million to 270 million bushels.

 

Soymeal futures and soyoil futures settled higher, following soybean gains.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB61 higher at RMB2,677/tonne, while the benchmark September 2007 soyoil contract settled RMB92 higher at RMB8,132/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled slightly lower.

 

The benchmark January 2008 contract settled RMB3 lower at RMB1,496/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts declined to 523,106 lots from 606,374 lots Wednesday.