Soybean Futures Gaining for Thursday Follow Through

Soybean futures are up fractionally to 3 3/4 cents so far this morning. Meal and oil prices are mixed with $1.10 to $2/ton gains and 17 to 20 point losses respectively. Soybean prices closed 0.8% to 1.03% higher Wednesday on double digit gains of 11 to 15 cents. For the May contract, that has the weekly move now a net 25 cent drop. Soymeal futures also closed in the black with gains of $2.70 to $3.20/ton. May meal is still at a net $9.70 loss for the week. Soybean oil futures ended the day with 79 point gains. 

USDA’s NASS reported 191.128 mbu of soybeans were processed in January. That was a 2% boost from December’s crush, but was still down 1.6% from Jan last year. Crush YTD is 41.8% of the Feb WASDE’s full year forecasted total. Soymeal output was reported at 4.255m tons for the month, with 2.252b lbs of crude soy oil produced. Soybean oil stocks were 2.356b lbs, slightly below the trade average guess. 

Going into the weekly Export Sales report, analysts expect between 350k and 850k MT of old crop soybeans were sold during the week that ended 2/23. New crop bookings are estimated under 200k MT. For the products, traders expect that between 50k and 300k MT of meal was sold and less than 12k MT of soy oil was sold. 

Private analyst firm Cordonnier reduced their estimate for Argentina soybean production by 2 MMT to 32 MMT. USDA was 41 MMT in February. Official February soybean exports from Brazil were 5.2 MMT, compared to 6.27 MMT last year. 

Mar 23 Soybeans  closed at $15.04 1/4, up 13 3/4 cents, currently up 3 3/4 cents

Nearby Cash   was $14.55, up 19 1/8 cents,

May 23 Soybeans  closed at $14.94 1/4, up 15 1/4 cents, currently up 2 1/4 cents

Jul 23 Soybeans  closed at $14.84 1/2, up 15 cents, currently up 3/4 cents