Soybeans End Week with Small Gains Despite Early Surge

Soybean prices showed volatility on Monday, starting with strong gains but ultimately closing with only marginal increases. Most soybean contracts settled between 2 1/2 to 3 1/4 cents higher, while the cmdtyView national average cash bean price rose 2 1/4 cents to $12.25 1/4. Soymeal futures saw mixed results, ranging from a $1.20 gain to an $1.80 decline, while soy oil futures increased by 21 to 80 points.

The USDA reported a private export sale of 104,000 metric tons of soybeans to unknown destinations. Meanwhile, the NASS Crop Progress report indicated that 85% of the US soybean crop had dropped leaves as of October 4, with harvest progress at just 25%, lagging 7 percentage points behind the normal pace. Condition ratings for soybeans dipped 1% to 57% good/excellent, and the Brugler500 index fell 2 points to 350.

The Export Inspections report revealed that soybean shipments for the week of October 1 totaled 1.138 million metric tons, a 45.3% increase from the previous week. However, this was still 1.5% below the same week last year. China was the top destination, receiving 756,492 metric tons, followed by Algeria and Bangladesh. Year-to-date shipments reached 3.986 million metric tons, 30.9% ahead of the same period last year.

In Brazil, AgRural estimated that 7.3% of the soybean crop had been planted as of Thursday, behind the 9% planted at this time last year. They projected the country's soybean crop at 182.7 million metric tons, a slight increase from their previous estimate.