Soybeans Rise, Halting Five-Day Slump, as User Purchases Gain

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans jumped the most in more than two weeks on speculation that food and animal-feed makers stepped up purchases after prices slid to a two-month low.

Demand for soybeans for feed and cooking oils increased after the price fell 7.8 percent in the past five sessions, said Mario Balletto, a CitiGroup Global Markets Inc. grain analyst in Chicago. The potential profit from crushing the oilseed rose 6.5 percent this week to 78 cents a bushel, data from the Chicago Board of Trade show.

“You are seeing some increase in demand from both overseas and domestic consumers after the recent break in prices,” Balletto said.

Soybean futures for March delivery rose 14.5 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $9.925 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the biggest gain since Dec. 28. Yesterday, the most-active contract touched $9.69, the lowest price since Nov. 12.

Today’s gain halted a five-session slump, the longest slide since early September. Soybeans climbed 13 percent in the fourth quarter on record Chinese purchases of U.S. supplies.

Export sales and shipments from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 jumped 55 percent from a year earlier to a record 32.265 million metric tons for the date, USDA data show. Animal-feed exports and purchases since Oct. 1 surged 87 percent to 5.83 million tons by Dec. 31, compared with a year earlier, while cooking-oil demand more than tripled, government figures show.

Dairy, poultry, egg and meat producers “are looking at weakness to buy soybean meal,” said Greg Grow, Archer Financial Services’ agribusiness director in Chicago. “We still have strong overseas demand for soybean meal and oil.”

Soybean-meal futures for March delivery rose $5.70, or 2 percent, to $291.50 per 2,000 pounds in Chicago. Yesterday, the most-active contract touched $284.10, the lowest price since Nov. 10. March soybean oil gained 0.38 cent, or 1 percent, to 39.01 cents a pound.

The U.S. soybean harvest was valued at a record $27.4 billion in 2008, the nation’s largest crop after corn, government figures show.