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US Biofuels Update: Technical Buying Underpins Soybean Futures Prices

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Biofuels feedstock futures closed higher, with the soybean market finding buyers following pressure from the US-Iran peace agreement.

The Chicago Board of Trade July soybean futures contract closed 0.47% higher at $11.19 per bushel, and the CBOT July soybean oil futures contract settled 0.12% higher at 74.37 cents per pound.

The Nymex July ethanol futures contract settled 0.67% higher on Friday at $1.88 per gallon.

Initially, the peace deal pushed biofuel feedstock markets and energy markets lower.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said the traders used technical market signals to underpin the soybean price.

"Soybean futures were able to rally on technical-based buying despite weakness in the product markets, specifically soybean oil," Montgomery said in a daily note.

"Despite a decline in gross crush premiums over the past few weeks, incentives remain among the highest on record for processors," he added.

The analyst cited the National Oilseed Processors Association report on Monday, which showed that its members crushed 208.8 million bushels of soybeans in May. Montgomery said it was "a disappointing month considering the strength of margins, and the first April-to-May decrease for US crush since 2020."

However, this is still a new May crush record in the US, he added.

On Monday, the US Department of Agriculture's Weekly Export Inspection Report showed that soybean inspections totaled 19.2 mb for the week ending June 11.

Total inspections for 2025-26 are now at 1.345 billion bushels, down 19% from the previous year. USDA estimates soybean exports to total 1.510 bb in 2025-26, down 20% from the previous year.

Soybean inspections are running slightly ahead of USDA's estimated pace at a time when USDA's estimate of soybean ending stocks is 16% larger than the previous five-year average.

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