“They’ve pushed the market so far down that it’s pretty much like a rubber band that’s going to snap back, especially here
before a government report,” said Sterling Smith, futures specialist for Citigroup.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday is to release its August crop report. In a Reuters poll, analysts’
average estimate pegged 2013 U.S. soy production at a record high 3.338 billion bushels, and corn at a record 13.980 billion bushels.
Soybeans and corn are Ohio’s two top crops.
Traders said the soy forecast likely would remain at a record high, even though the consensus is that the USDA will
reduce its forecast from July.
Concerns that an early frost could harm the immature corn and soybean crops helped underpin corn futures and buoyed
soybean prices, as did a turn to drier weather in the U.S. in August, the critical month for the pod-setting stage of soybean
development.
“Some of this rally is due to talk about what an early frost could do, and yes there is a frost risk here because of the
immaturity of the crop,” Smith said. “But I’ve talked to meteorologists and there is absolutely no correlation between a
cool summer and an early frost.”
Moderate temperatures for the next couple of weeks will aid growth and development of U.S. corn and soybeans, but lack of rain is becoming an issue, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday.
Soybeans have also found impetus in export demand, with top buyer China reporting record-high imports for July and U.S.
weekly new-crop export sales on Thursday above expectations.
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