Afternoon Comments 05/23

Soybean futures also traded weakly early Thursday morning, but later seemed to benefit from the USDA Export Sales report. Old crop sales reached 183,500 tonnes last week, while the top forecast was 100,000; new crop sales netted 838,900 tonnes, easily topping the largest estimate at 450,000. However, traders appeared much less optimistic about new crop price prospects, possibly due to ideas plantings are progressing very rapidly. The stunning reversal from noon highs may presage short-term July weakness. July soybean futures closed up 5.25 cents at $14.995/bushel Thursday after having reached $15.4675 at one point. July soyoil rose 0.02 cents to 49.66 cents/pound, and July soybean meal fell $3.6 to $437.0/ton.