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US Biofuels Update: Soybean Futures End Higher on Low Volume Ahead of Long Holiday Weekend

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Biofuels feedstock futures closed higher on Thursday, as traders positioned their portfolios ahead of the long holiday weekend.

The Chicago Board of Trade August soybean futures contract closed 0.26% higher at $11.36 1/4 per bushel, while the CBOT August soybean oil futures contract settled 0.12% higher at 66.77 cents per pound.

The Nymex August ethanol futures contract settled 0.13% lower on Wednesday at $1.88 per gallon.

The CME Group futures markets are closed on Friday for the Fourth of July holiday.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said traders likely called an early end to their workweek on Thursday, with low volume in the row-crop trade causing a lack of conviction in the futures markets to close out the week.

"The old crop soybean market rose for a third straight session, continuing to benefit from technically driven buying after this week's early test of long-term trend support just above $11.00 on the August contract," Montgomery said.

"When traders return next week, July weather forecasts will likely be the first indicator checked when deciding positions moving forward, with corn pollination just around the corner," he added.

On Thursday, the US Department of Agriculture reported that for the week ending June 25, soybean export sales totaled 1.5 million bushels or 41,800 metric tons of soybean export sales in 2025-26 and an increase of 6.7 mb or 182,500 mt for 2026-27.

Last week's export shipments of 14.3 mb exceeded the 13.4 mb needed each week to meet USDA's export estimate of 1.510 bb for 2025-26.

Soybean export commitments now total 1.509 billion bushels for 2025-26, down 18% from a year ago. That is ahead of USDA's estimated pace, even as its estimate of US ending soybean stocks is 16% larger than the previous five-year average.

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