By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO, Nov 12 (Reuters) – U.S. soybean futures rose about 2% on Friday, led by soaring soymeal futures tied to technical buying, brisk demand for the high-protein feed ingredient and logistical hurdles, traders said.
Corn and wheat futures followed the higher trend, supported by tightening global grain supplies and fund-driven buying, and U.S. wheat futures hit their highest in nearly nine years.
Chicago Board of Trade January soybean futures SF2 settled up 22-3/4 cents, or 1.9%, at $12.44-1/4 per bushel, with December soymeal SMZ1 up $17.60, or 5.1%, at $362.10 per short ton.
CBOT December corn CZ1 ended up 7-3/4 cents at $5.77-1/4 a bushel. December wheat WZ1 finished up 4-1/2 cents at $8.17 a bushel after reaching $8.26-3/4, the highest on a continuous chart of the most-active contract Wv1 since December 2012.
The surge in soymeal surprised some traders, given that CBOT soymeal has lost ground to soyoil on spreads for most of 2021 as global vegetable oil supplies dwindle and demand for biofuel rises. But demand for soymeal, used in animal feed rations, may be climbing at a time of transportation bottlenecks and labor shortages.
“The feeling is, we are going to see the Chinese trying to feed more soybean meal and less corn, with the corn tighter than meal,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. commodities.
Roose and others also attributed the jump in soymeal futures to short-covering, with traders exiting long soyoil/short soymeal and long corn/short soymeal spread positions.
Soybean futures SF2 drew support from fresh export business, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirming private sales of 256,930 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to unknown destinations.
“China is back buying U.S. beans out of the Gulf,” said Terry Linn, analyst with Linn & Associates, a Chicago brokerage.
CBOT corn rose in part on brisk demand for corn-based ethanol fuel.
“The ethanol guys have these massive margins, so they are running hot and bidding up to buy all the corn they can,” Linn said.
Worries about rising global prices and tightening supplies of commodities also provided broad support for grains.
“You’ve seen a very pro-active buying posture from world buyers, trying to secure supply … because it’s getting more difficult,” Linn said.
Euronext wheat futures held near 14-year highs as plans by Iraq to make a large import purchase added to concerns about global inventories, after top exporter Russia suggested further possible curbs on its shipments.
The most-active March milling wheat BL2H2 contract on the Paris-based Euronext settled up 1.75 euros, or 0.6%, at 294.00 euros ($336.45) a tonne, a day after reaching 296.00 euros, the highest price on a second-month position BL2c2 since September 2007.
(Repoting by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Barbara Lewis)
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