The soy market settled the last trade day of the week mixed with beans and soy oil higher to lower meal. The November soybean contract was 2 ½ cents higher at the close, but still under the $13 mark. Nov beans fell a net 44 cents for the week. Soymeal futures were down $2.10 to $2.50/ton for the day, ending the week with a $5.40 drop. Soybean Oil futures closed 114 to 122 points higher on the day, rounding out the week on a net 253 point loss for the October contract. USDA reported the cash B100 prices as $6.15 in IL and $4.85/gal in MN – both UNCH for the week. 

CFTC’s weekly Commitment of Traders update showed managed money was 45,832 contracts net long in soybeans on 9/19. That was a 28k contract weaker net long through the week given major long liquidation. The commercial soybean hedgers added 26k new long hedges and took their net short down to 115,152 contracts. Spec traders were also closing meal longs through the week, reducing their net long by 6.3k contracts to 55.9k. The weekly update had managed money funds closing shorts in soy oil, which grew their net long by 6k contracts to 47,064. 

The International Grains Council released their updated 23/24 soybean outlook. Production fell 2 MMT to 396 MMT, but is still up from 367 last season. Carryout got 2 MMT tighter as well, now to 62 MMT. 

Chinese import data had 9.09 MMT of soybeans brought in for August. That was down from 9.36 MMT during Aug ’22, but beans sourced from Brazil increased 45% reflecting both their record crop and record export program. China Customs data showed the US as the source for just 120k MT of the total for the month, a 58% drop from Aug ’22. 

Nov 23 Soybeans  closed at $12.96 1/4, up 2 1/2 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $12.32 1/4, up 3 1/8 cents,

Jan 24 Soybeans  closed at $13.13 1/2, up 2 3/4 cents,

Mar 24 Soybeans  closed at $13.24 3/4, up 2 1/2 cents,