Soybean Futures Firming for Friday

Bean prices are bouncing 6 to 19 3/4cents into the weekend. Preliminary open interest data showed long liquidation in the May contract ahead of delivery notice, with net new selling in the other months. May OI dropped to 4,696 contracts. Meal futures are trading back up by $4.30 to $7 so far. Open interest in May meal dropped 68% in one day, to 2,961 contracts. Soy oil price are 50 to 84 points in the black at midday. May soy oil OI dropped to only 1,625 contracts on Thursday. USDA’s weekly B100 cash price for the week was $3.99/gal in MN after a 25c drop. 

There were zero delivery notices on FND vs. May meal and May soybeans (oldest long dated Jan 18,2023).  There were 52 put out against May BO, to a half dozen different stoppers. 

Argentina’s soy crop was shown at 28% harvested through 4/17 according to BAGE. 

USDA’s weekly Export Sales report showed 311,252 MT of soybean bookings for the week that ended 4/20. That was up from 100k MT last week but was under the 481k MT sold during the same week last year. Analysts were looking for between 75k and 500k MT going into the report. Soybean exports were 453,708 MT for the week, taking the season’s total to 46.72 MMT. That is even with last year’s export pace and is 85% of USDA’s forecast. Accumulated old crop soybean commitments were at 92% of USDA’s forecast. 

May 23 Soybeans  are at $14.48, up 21 1/4 cents,

Nearby Cash   is at $14.03 7/8, up 16 1/4 cents,

Jul 23 Soybeans  are at $14.19 3/4, up 16 cents,

Nov 23 Soybeans  are at $12.66 1/4, up 10 3/4 cents,