Soybean futures slipped to around $12.50 per bushel, their lowest level in eight weeks, as investors pared back bullish positions amid advancing US harvest activity and generally favorable weather forecasts for the Midwest. While scattered rains last week temporarily slowed fieldwork in parts of the region, forecasters projected drier conditions through the end of the week, enabling farmers to resume harvesting.
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop progress report, released this week, US farmers have harvested 64% of the soybean crop, slightly below market expectations. Even so, harvest-related selling pressure continued to outweigh support from a pickup in Chinese demand. On Monday, the USDA confirmed private sales of 114,000 metric tons of US soybeans to China, bringing total confirmed sales to that destination to 1.472 million tons over the past four days.
