US Biofuels Update: Soybean Oil Extends Rally, Hits Contract Highs; Soybeans Ease
Biofuels feedstock futures closed mixed on Thursday, with soybean oil reaching contract highs again, while soybean prices overcame early lows to post modest gains on deferred contracts.The Chicago Board of Trade July soybean futures contract closed 0.13% lower on Thursday at $11.95 per bushel, while the CBOT July soybean oil futures contract settled 0.57% higher at 74.54 cents per pound.On Wednesday, the June ethanol futures contract on the Nymex ended 3.39% higher at $2.06 per gallon.Rhett Montgomery, DTN analyst, said a risk-off day in wheat futures carried over to other agricultural futures."Spillover weakness extended to the corn market, while soybeans were more resilient with traders still willing to wait for the results of the Trump/Xi summit in May before casting their votes on longer-term price direction," Montgomery said in a daily note.The US House of Representatives passed a "skinny" Farm Bill. Originally, a separate vote on the E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council's year-round nationwide E15 proposal was supposed to take place at the same time.After ongoing negotiations, the vote on E15 will now occur on May 13, after the Congressional recess.On Thursday, the US Department of Agriculture reported that for the week ending April 23, soybean export sales for 2025-26 rose 9.5 million bushels or 258,100 metric tons, while sales for 2026-27 increased by 0.1 mb or 3,000 mt.Last week's export shipments of 22.4 mb were above the 17.5 mb needed each week to achieve USDA's export estimate of 1.540 billion bushels in 2025-26. Soybean export commitments now total 1.425 bb in 2025-26, down 18% from a year ago.