Friday’s Soy Trade Reverses into the Weekend

Some position squaring ahead of the weekend had the soy complex fading early week losses. For beans that left the board 1 to 7 1/4 cents higher today, but still down 3-6 cents for the week. Meal futures rallied $6.10 to $7.70 in the front months, but March stayed at a net $8.60 loss from Friday to Friday. BO futures pulled back some of the week’s earlier gains with 46 to 52 point losses on Friday. March BO was still a net 292 points higher for the week. The weekly average B100 price was $5.93/gal in MN, up by 3 cents through the week. 

Weekly Commitment of Traders data had the funds at 119,580 contracts net long in soybeans on 12/13. That was a 20k contract increase through the week – mainly fueled by net new buying. Commercial soybean hedgers added 24k new short hedges for a 160,124 contract net short as of 12/13. In the products, CFTC had the funds 15,977 contracts more net long at 114,486 contracts in meal. Soy oil spec traders dumped another 8.3k longs for a 9.2k contract weaker net long of 53,349 contracts as of 12/13. 

Buenos Aires Grains Exchange reported 50.8% of the 2022/23 Argentina soy planting reached as of 12/15. That is down 14.2% from last year’s pace. 

Private firm Planalytics estimates the Argentina soy yield at 2.79 MT/HA – compared to USDA’s 3 MT/HA estimate. They had Brazil’s average soy yield at 3.51 MT/HA compared to 3.54 from USDA. 

Jan 23 Soybeans  closed at $14.80, up 6 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $14.55 1/2, up 5 7/8 cents,

Mar 23 Soybeans  closed at $14.83 3/4, up 7 cents,

May 23 Soybeans  closed at $14.87, up 7 1/4 cents,