The international price of soybeans chained its fifth consecutive drop and in one week lost more than US$20

It was precisely this last point that most affected the price of the oilseed in the Chicago market during today’s day, with a drop in the price of beans from US$ 9 to US$ 415 per ton. Its by-products also had strong declines: Oil sank by US$53.35 to US$1,681.89 and flour did the same by US$7.83 to US$345.79.

The cereals did not emerge unscathed and corn led the declines, with a decrease of US$ 2.76 to US$ 167.12 per ton, while wheat fell US$ 2.02 to US$ 213.76.

If we take into account last Friday’s price of the three main grains mentioned above, it can be seen that soybeans, in just five rounds, lost US$21; wheat US$10.5 and corn US$8.8.

As said previously, there are several factors that pressure grain prices, but specifically the one that made the most noise today in the Chicago market was the “lack of news” of the million-dollar purchases of agricultural raw materials supposedly promised by China to the United States that could trigger new trade tensions between both powers, to which was added a massive movement of speculative funds getting rid of contracts and the good weather conditions in North America.

“The market takes the risk that the trade war between China and the United States escalates again“It was circulating that Donald Trump wanted to apply new import tariffs to China and that makes operators take the risk that everything that China had agreed to buy, it will not buy,” said the trade advisor and grain market analyst, Paulina Lescano.

Regarding speculative funds, Lescano noted that “they were very bought in soybeans, they began to leave and this news marked this process even more.”

In addition, the AZ-Group Grains analyst, Bruno Todoneindicated that another factor that explains the attitude of investors is that they see a possible increase in FED rateswhich would make them “leave commodities.”

Finally, another pressure point is the good weather in the United States for sowing coarse grains. Yesterday’s rains in the Great Plains would move to the soybean/corn belt in the coming days, which would allow the implementation work to be completed.

Regarding the impact on prices in Argentina, the truth is that the local market, although it copies part of the movements, has its own factors that affect prices.

Beyond the fact that peso values ​​marked an increase in recent days for available grains, in dollars – except for wheat, which remained around US$ 214 per ton – they went down.

So, Soybeans went from US$332 to US$325 per ton, while corn fell from US$185 to US$180.

It should be remembered that the coarse grain harvest is in full development, with an abundant supply of merchandise, at the same time that movements in the exchange rate mark the movement of business.

“The rise in the dollar tries to compensate for the drop in prices of both soybeans and corn. In any case, if we look at the decline in prices in Chicago with what is happening in the local market, we can see that they are relatively strengthened. In other words, they don’t fall as much as in the international market,” said the market analyst and financial advisor. Mariela Brandolin.

The specialist highlighted that in the case of soybeans “we are seeing that it is worth the same as the payment capacity (of the industry) and future positions are not being rewarded, which indicates that buyers are more concerned about acquiring available soybeans. If we analyze the domestic sales of producers, they have not yet been reactivatedbeyond the fact that withholdings will only go down in January.”

Regarding wheat, the director of RIA Consultores, Javier Preciado Patiñomaintained that “the bulk of the sales have already been made and no less than 7 million tons are left hanging around, but now wheat is coming in from the northern hemisphere and here the cereal is of poor quality, an issue that is causing Brazil to slow down on imports. What is certain is that it will remain a lot of carry of the last harvest”.