Soybean Futures Fall as Cooler Weather Raises US Crop Prospects

Soybean futures fell as US forecasts for wetter and cooler weather in the Midwest in the coming weeks raised harvest prospects.

(Bloomberg) — Soybean futures fell as US forecasts for wetter and cooler weather in the Midwest in the coming weeks raised harvest prospects.

The oilseed for November delivery fell as much as 2% Wednesday in Chicago to its lowest level since the end of June as the weather outlook lifted hopes for a bigger US crop.

“The market will keep an eye on the weather in August and so far it is favorable,” said Patrick Boova, director of Farmington Hills, Michigan-based International Agribusiness Group, said Wednesday in a phone interview.

A weeklong correction in soybean prices has also been tied to market speculators reducing long positions in the oilseed and its byproducts, according to Boova.

“We still have good crush margins in the US and China and there’s a limit on how much prices can go down,” he said. “We can run out of speculative selling and encounter end-user buying.”

Brazil will also add some more competition to the global market. StoneX’s Brazilian unit estimated on Tuesday that soybean output from the South American powerhouse will be almost 4% higher at 163.5 million metric tons than the previous season due to small gains in planted acreage and yields in the coming year.

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