Soybeans: The overnight market chef added another layer of lasagna fixings[ii] to the soybean market to start the week. The January issue (ZSF25) jumped 7.0 cents shortly after Sunday night’s open (9:00 Beijing time), posting an initial high of $9.9050. This time around the clock, though, the lasagna layer was a bit different as January would then post a new high of $9.9325 around 0:45 (CT)/14:45 (Beijing) meaning Eastern Hemisphere buyers had a bit more business to do after lunch. Monday’s pre-dawn hours find January soybeans sitting at $9.89, up 5.5 cents on trade volume of 23,200 contracts. Fundamentally, not much has changed with the soybean market of late. The National Soybean Index was calculated near $9.3225 last Friday, putting national average basis at 51.25 cents under January futures as compared to the previous Friday’s final figure of 53.5 cents under and the previous 5-year average weekly close for last week of 49.0 cents under January. Last Friday also saw the Jan-March futures spread cover a bullish 32% calculated full commercial carry while deferred spreads were still comfortably in neutral territory between 33% and 67%. This continues to tell us short-term global demand is strong with question marks hanging over the US industry once the calendar page turns to 2025.
