Soybean futures settle higher as dollar slips

Soybean futures tilted higher as the dollar index gave up ground, following an array of data from the US, the world's largest soybean producer and exporter. 

As of 08:33 GMT, soybean futures due on November 15 rose 0.31% to $9.5825 from the opening of $9.5525, while the dollar index shed 0.12% to 93.46 from the opening of 93.57.

Earlier US data showed the ADP private sector employment change with 135 thousand new jobs last month, down sharply from 228K in August, while still beating expectations of 131K.

The US ISM services PMI jumped to 59.8 in September from 55.3 in August, beating expectations of 55.5 easily, while markets followed Fed Chair Janet Yellen's speech at a community banking conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Otherwise, the US Department of Agriculture reported strong soybean sales in the third week of the new marketing year starting this month at 2.98 million metric tonnes, besting expectations of 1.5 to 2.0 million. 

China came at the top as usual at 1.4 million tonnes, followed by unknown buyers at 1 million, then Mexico at 200.9 thousand, then Thailand and Taiwan at 141.6 thousand and 65.5 thousand respectively. 

Otherwise, the US Department of Agriculture's September report released last month showed soybean inventories unchanged in the agriculture year of 2017/2018 at 475 million bushels, compared to market expectations of 442 million bushels. 

The USDA raised its productivity forecasts by half a bushel to 49.9 bushels per donam, compared to expectations of 48.4 bushels, with the departments projecting total output at 4.431 billion bushels, compared to 4.381 billion in previous forecasts.

We should note that the USDA report said that grain projections for the current month don't reflect the impact of the floods and hurricanes that hit the US recently, adding that the Department will make surveys in the affected areas to include the damages in the October report.