A tender for supplies from Egypt, the world's top buyer of wheat, added support to the wheat market. The US Agriculture Department said the soyabean cancellations also included 120,000 tonnes of supplies sold to unknown destinations in addition to the 300,000 tonne deal that China, the world's top buyer of soyabeans, scuttled.
China's move suggested that demand for US soyabeans might be slowing down from its robust pace of the past few months, especially with harvest of the South American crop starting soon. "I am a little surprised but let's look at it in the bigger scope," said Mark Schultz. "I was even more surprised that they bought as much as they did earlier. It is still a big number, even with the cancellations. We are a little bit surprised just because of where the price of beans are still at in China."
CBOT January soyabean futures settled down 30-1/4 cents at $14.66 a bushel. Prices fell through key technical support points at the contract's 50-day and 200-day moving averages during the session. It was the front-month soyabean contract's biggest drop in percentage terms since falling 2.1 percent on November 15. CBOT March corn was 4 cents lower at $7.20 a bushel. CBOT March wheat gained 3-1/4 cents to $8.11-1/4 a bushel, settling above its 200-day moving average after hovering near that key technical level for much of the session.
Egypt's main wheat-buying agency, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), set a tender on Tuesday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment February 11-20. As part of the tender, GASC is seeking cargoes of 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of different kinds of wheat, including two different classes of US supplies.