On Tuesday morning, soybeans gained 3 to 5 ½ cents in trading, following Monday’s increase of the same amount. The cmdtyView national average cash bean price dropped by 4 ¼ cents to $10.45 1/2. In open interest, there was an increase of 5,376 contracts on Monday, while 21,516 contracts rolled out of March.
The USDA reported a private export sale of 264,000 metric tons of soybeans to China. In the previous week, 1.136 million metric tons (41.74 million bushels) of soybeans were shipped, a decrease of 13.8% from the prior week, with China receiving the largest share at 747,198 metric tons. Cumulatively, 23.136 million metric tons have been shipped this marketing year, which is 34.4% lower than the same period last year.
The monthly WASDE report set to be released later today is expected to show US soybean stocks at 348 million bushels, a decrease from January’s estimate of 380 million bushels. Brazil’s soybean production is projected to increase by 1.2 million metric tons to 179.2 million metric tons, while Argentina’s is estimated to decrease by 0.4 million metric tons to 48.1 million metric tons.
