* Soymeal leads soy lower after early rally
* Corn mold issue may be overblown
* Weak dollar supports U.S. grains/soy
(Recasts to include close of U.S. trading session, fresh
analyst quotes)
By Sam Nelson
CHICAGO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. soymeal futures ended
nearly flat to weak on Friday on profit-taking after jumping to
a two-week high as worries about mold in the corn crop led to
the potential for a shift toward feeding soymeal to livestock
and chickens instead of processed corn.
Traders and analysts said the excessive wet weather in the
United States this harvest season caused some of the corn crop
to mold and led to the vomitoxin problem.
The fungus can sicken livestock when present in feed at
high concentrations and is a byproduct of the fungal disease,
Giberella ear rot.
Joe Bedore, CBOT floor manager for trade house FC Stone,
said corn traders were worried that the corn mold was resulting
in distillers dried grain, a byproduct of ethanol refining that
is used to feed livestock.
"The rally was due to the vomitoxin issue and concerns
about a cut in DDG use," he said, using the acronym for
distillers dried grain, used in livestock and poultry feeding
rations as a good source of protein. DDG contains roughly 30
percent protein versus only about 8-10 percent for corn.
Soymeal is a major source of protein supplement in
livestock feeds and contains from 44 to 48 percent protein.
U.S. soymeal for December delivery ended up 10 cents per
ton at $301.10 after peaking at a two-week high at $312 and
posting a nearly 6.5 percent for the week.
November delivery soy finished up 1-3/4 cents per bushel at
$9.84 and January delivery soy was down 3 at $9.87, while
December corn settled unchanged at $3.90-1/2.
Soymeal ended up 4.3 percent for the week, soybeans up 4
percent, corn up 6.3 percent and wheat up 8.7 percent.
U.S. corn and soybean harvest was stalled by wet weather
this season but warmer and drier weather over the past couple
of weeks has aided harvesting.
However, there are forecasts for rains again next week,
which would snarl final harvest of the soy crop and hamper corn
harvest which is only about half complete.
More wet weather now could also worsen the vomitoxin
problem.
Soybean futures also found some underpinning by big export
sales of U.S. soybeans as seen in the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's (USDA) weekly export sales report released on
Friday.
"It was a huge soybean number, China is back and I think
they will keep buying, so long term it will affect the soybean
balance sheet," Bedore said.
Traders and analysts also were looking at the weak dollar
and linking the gains in wheat and the early gains in soy to
that issue.
A weak dollar makes U.S. commodities a better buy for
importers using such currencies as the yen and euro.
"I think it was money flow again. I think the DDG thing has
been blown out of proportion," said Paul Haugens,
vice-president for Newedge USA.
Analysts in Asia said it was too early to be alarmed. "The
vomitoxin story in corn is a little way off in becoming a
genuine concern. We are not yet concerned," said Brett Cooper,
a trader with MF Global Australia.
CBOT settlement prices
Last Change Pct 2008 YTD
Chg Close Pct Chg
---------------------------------------------------------------
CBOT corn Cc1> 3.9050 0.0000 0.0 4.07 -4.1
CBOT soy Sc1> 9.8400 0.0175 0.2 9.7225 1.2
CBOT meal SMc1> 301.10 0.10 0.0 300.5 0.2
CBOT soyoil BOc1> 0.3861 0.0024 0.6 0.3329 16.0
CBOT wheat Wc1> 5.3900 0.0725 1.4 6.1075 -11.7
CBOT rice RRc1> 14.6700 0.1900 1.3 15.34 -4.4
EU wheat BL2F0> 131.75 0 0.0 137 -3.8
US crude CLc1> 76.34 -0.6 -0.8 44.60 71.2
Dow Jones .DJI> 10258 60 0.6 8776 16.9
Gold XAU=> 1114.70 11.10 1.0 878.20 26.9
Euro/dollar EUR=> 1.4906 0.006 0.4 1.3978 6.6
Dollar Index .DXY> 75.2740 -0.3220 -0.4 81.1510 -7.2
Baltic Freight .BADI> 4111 157 4.0 774 431
----------------------------------------------------------------
*In U.S. dollars, front-month contracts, except EU wheat, which
is in euros, CBOT wheat, corn and soybeans per bushel, rice per
hundredweight, soymeal per ton and soyoil per lb.
(Additional reporting by Christine Stebbins and Julie
Ingwersen in Chicago, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Valerie
Parent in Paris; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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