Soy Futures Fade on Friday

At the close beans were 14 cents weaker in the March contract and a dime in the red in the May. The other nearby beans closed fractionally to 8 1/2 cents lower. March is still at a nickel premium to May and is a 13 1/2 cent premium to July. New crop beans lessened their discount, but are still $1.58 below the spot market. In the products, meal closed Friday $2.50 to $3.60 in the red. For March that finished the week with a net $9.80 gain and just $13.50 below the contract high. BO prices went into the weekend with Friday losses of 5 to 17 points. USDA cited the B100 cash price at $5.50/gal in MN for the week, a 20c drop from last week. 

CFTC reported managed money soybean spec traders were 146,261 contracts net long as of 1/24. That was a 22k contract weaker net long through the week as the funds closed 14k longs and added 8k new shorts. Commercial soybean hedgers added 15k new long hedges which helped weaken their net short by 19k contracts to 179,807. In the products, the spec traders were  15k contracts less net long in meal and 18k contracts less net long in soybean oil. Commercials were also adding long hedges in the products, with 8k new longs for meal and 14k new longs for the oil through the week. 

Brazil’s Safras and Mercado reported the 22/23 soybean harvest reached 4.4%, compared to 11% last year when the crop was diminished by drought. 

Brazil’s Deral expects the state of Parana will yield 20.7 MMT of soybeans via their most recent forecast. That is down by 3% citing the season’s dryness in the South. 

Mar 23 Soybeans  closed at $15.09 1/2, down 14 cents,

Nearby Cash   was $14.72, down 14 cents,

May 23 Soybeans  closed at $15.04 1/2, down 10 1/4 cents,

Jul 23 Soybeans  closed at $14.96, down 8 1/2 cents,