SINGAPORE- Chicago soybean futures were flat on Thursday, after climbing earlier in the session to a three-week high as prices found support in strong demand from US oilseed processors and a drought in rival exporter Brazil.
Wheat gained ground amid tight supplies in India, a leading wheat consumer, while corn eased.
“The soybean market is taking into account US demand and dry weather in Brazil,” said one Singapore-based oilseed trader. “But China’s demand will be key to prices going forward.”
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) held its ground at $13.10 a bushel, as of 0325 GMT, after hitting its highest since Sept. 27 at $13.15 a bushel earlier on Thursday.
Wheat added 0.7 percent to $5.84 a bushel, while corn lost 0.1 percent to $4.91-3/4 a bushel.
Soybean futures are being supported by strong US local demand and on news that US exporters had sold 132,000 metric tons of soybeans to China for the 2023-2024 marketing year.
A severe drought in Brazil, the world’s biggest soybean exporter, is providing further support to prices.
The Amazon River fell to its lowest level in over a century on Monday at the heart of the Brazilian rainforest as a record drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.
The drought in the Amazon is forcing Brazilian grain exporters to divert a small number of export cargoes to southern port terminals instead of northern ports, grain exporters group Anec said on Wednesday.
