Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures fell on Thursday as forecasts for rain in the US Midwest bolstered expectations that the harvest will be more than big enough to meet demand, traders said. The rain is expected to come at a critical time for soyabean development when much of the crop will be filling pods.

The soyabean market closed near session lows. The US soyabean crush in July topped most trade estimates and surged from a 21-month low in June to the sixth-highest for any month on record, according to National Oilseed Processors Association data released on Thursday. The US Agriculture Department on Thursday morning said that weekly old-crop export sales of soyabeans amounted to cancellations of 109,800 tonnes in the week ended August 8. Analysts' forecasts for old-crop sales had ranged from 50,000 to 300,000 tonnes.

New-crop export sales of 817,400 tonnes were bigger than forecasts for 100,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes. The benchmark CBOT November soyabean futures contract dropped below its 10-day moving average during Thursday's trading session.

Copyright Reuters, 2019