Chicago | Reuters—U.S. soyoil futures hit their highest in 20 months on Monday, supported by U.S. biofuel blending proposals that are likely to increase demand, while soybean futures touched a one-month high before paring gains.
But corn futures fell on favorable weather and wheat declined on harvest pressure.
Chicago Board of Trade July soyoil BON25 rose its daily limit, which was expanded by the exchange for Monday’s session from 3 cents to 4.50 cents, and settled at 55.11 cents per pound. That price was the highest on a continuous chart of the most-active soyoil contract since October 2023.
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The exchange said expanded limits would remain in effect for Tuesday’s trading session.
CBOT July soybean futures SN25 finished unchanged on the day at $10.69-3/4 per bushel, easing after hitting $10.79-1/4, the contract’s highest since May 14. July corn CN25 ended down 9-3/4 cents at $4.34-3/4 a bushel and July wheat WN25 settled down 7-1/4 cents at $5.36-1/2 a bushel.
Soyoil futures plowed higher after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed larger-than-expected biofuel blending targets. The government also included measures to discourage biofuel imports.
The soy complex got another boost on Monday when the National Oilseed Processors Association said its U.S. members processed 192.829 million bushels of the oilseed last month, slightly below trade expectations but the largest May crush ever and the eighth-largest for any month on record.
“The current spike in soyoil prices helps to boost crush margins, which should help to rejuvenate the crush industry in light of Friday’s updated EPA biofuel mandate announcement,” Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for StoneX, wrote in a client note.
NOPA said soyoil stocks among its members as of May 31 dropped to 1.373 billion pounds, a bigger drop than most analysts expected.
Meanwhile, benign U.S. crop weather signaled strong production prospects, keeping a lid on CBOT corn and soybean rallies.
After the close of the CBOT, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rated 72 per cent of the U.S. corn crop as good to excellent in a weekly crop progress report, up 1 percentage point from a week ago and matching the year-ago rating as the best for this time of the season since 2018.
But soybean ratings declined, with 66 per cent of the crop rated good to excellent, down from 68 per cent last week. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected no change for either crop.
The USDA said the U.S. winter wheat crop was 10 per cent harvested, behind the five-year average of 16 per cent.
Ratings improved for spring wheat, grown in the northern Plains. The USDA rated 57 per cent of the crop in good to excellent condition, up from 53 per cent previously.
—Reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson in Beijing
