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US Biofuels Update: Soybean Futures Unable to Hold Weekly Strength

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Biofuels feedstock futures closed mixed on Friday, with soybean traders disappointed by a lack of China soybean purchases and weakness from grain markets.

The Chicago Board of Trade July soybean futures contract closed 0.11% lower at $11.26 per bushel, while the CBOT July soybean oil futures contract settled 0.69% higher at 71.30 cents per pound.

The Nymex July ethanol futures contract settled 2.19% higher on Thursday at $1.87 per gallon.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said that after a very strong session on Thursday, soybeans were unable to build on that bullish momentum heading into the weekend.

The analyst said that the market faced sluggish product markets and spillover weakness from the wheat sector, weighing on prices.

"Soybean price action has turned sideways in the low $11.00 range, with an upside objective being the 20-day moving average near $11.30 3/4. Twice in June, prices have tested lows just above $11.00, which holds as support for now," Montgomery said in a daily note.

Soybeans rose on Thursday after a very strong week ended June 18, with export sales, especially in the new-crop book, moving to a three-year high and now 66% ahead of the same point in 2025.

Despite reason for optimism here, along with record crush pace, analysts still expect north of 1 billion bushels of soybeans to be in US inventories as of June 1 in next week's Grain Stocks report, Montgomery said.

With old-crop soybean crush potentially stretched near its limit and little sign of a late-season export push, it may prove difficult to see ending soybean stocks reduced much beyond the 340 million bushels as per the US Department of Agriculture forecast in the June World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.

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