CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures ended lower on Wednesday as favourable weather and a speedy planting pace supported the US Department of Agriculture’s forecast for a large US soya harvest topping 4 billion bushels, traders said.

Additional pressure noted from traders unwinding long soyabean/short corn spread positions.

CBOT July soyabeans settled down 12-1/2 cents at $8.39-1/2 per bushel after dipping to $8.36-1/2, its lowest since May 7.

CBOT July soyameal ended down $1.50 at $290.60 per short ton and July soyaoil fell 0.35 cent to 25.91 cents per pound.

Traders shrugged off confirmation of fresh US soyabean sales to China. The USDA said private exporters sold 396,000 tonnes of US soyabeans to China, the second USDA soya sales announcement in as many days.

Ahead of Thursday’s weekly USDA export sales report, analysts expected the government to report soyabean sales in the week ended May 7 at 700,000 to 1.5 million tonnes (old and new crop years combined).

Ahead of the National Oilseed Processors Association’s monthly soya crushing report on Friday, analysts surveyed by Reuters expect the trade group to report that its members crushed 170.483 million bushels of soyabeans in April, down 6% from March but up 6.6% from a year earlier.—Reuters