Drought concerns fail to dampen as Soybean futures extend gains
March 16, 2018980 views0 comments
Soybean futures for November extended gains by 0.4 percent to $10.38 per bushel on the nerve of undermined impact of Argentina’s drought.
Adecoagro downplayed the impact of Argentina’s drought on its own crops, despite Rosario Grains Exchange slashing its forecasts for the country’s soybean output from 6.5m-tonne cut to 40.0m tonnes forecast.
The New York-listed group, which has the Qatar Investment Authority as its top shareholder, acknowledged that, “Argentina has been experiencing a drought with rain levels below historical averages.”
However, Adecoagro said that the impact of the dryness had been “partially mitigated by geographic diversification strategy and no-till production” with cultivation methods that do not affect the soil enhancing moisture retention.
While the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange left its forecast unchanged at 42 million tonnes, Terry Reilly at Futures International said, “the crop could fall below 40m tonnes.”
Separate data, on Thursday, on US export sales and soybean crush last month, seem upbeat for soybean prices with export of the feed ingredient threading below January levels.
However, soymeal futures have been more spritely this session than the last, adding 0.9 percent to 374.50 a short tonne for May delivery.
Soyoil data from the Nopa crush report were mixed, with stocks of 1.86 billion pounds well above the market forecast of 1.77 billion pounds.
Soyoil futures for May stood down 0.5 percent at 31.91 cents a pound, with rival palm oil exerting a downward pull, and Kuala Lumpur palm futures losing 0.6 percent to 2,426 ringgit a tonne.