{"id":9837,"date":"2025-12-18T14:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/?p=9837"},"modified":"2025-12-22T14:13:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:13:58","slug":"soybeans-hold-support-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/soybeans-hold-support-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Soybeans Hold Support Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Dr. Ken Rietz<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Soybeans seem to be the only agricultural game in town. Most other ag reports align fairly closely with market expectations. There is also little excitement in soybeans, for that matter, with people making guesses regarding how many millions of bushels of soybeans China will \u201cforget\u201d to order from the US. But since the soy market has three separate tracks (beans, oil, and meal), there is at least something to discuss. That is what we will do in this week\u2019s commentary. But first, we need to look at the CBOT soybean front-month futures.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9838\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141041.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"779\" height=\"590\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141041.png 779w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141041-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141041-768x582.png 768w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141041-16x12.png 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Figure 1: Front-month futures for CBOT soybeans<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at the soybean market first.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/plus\/cme\/soybean-oil-in-the-biofuel-era-an-industry-experts-perspective\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2025 was the fourth consecutive record year for soybeans<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/plus\/cme\/soybean-oil-in-the-biofuel-era-an-industry-experts-perspective\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,<\/a>\u00a0so a decreasing year-over-year price is expected. From a technical perspective,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.agweb.com\/markets\/market-analysis\/grains-fall-further-bleeding-over-cattle-eye-62-retracement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the futures dropped<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.agweb.com\/markets\/market-analysis\/grains-fall-further-bleeding-over-cattle-eye-62-retracement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on Monday<\/a>\u00a0to a new low, but support held, and the market bounced a bit. There is still some boost from China, but the markets are beginning to show increasing fatigue. Even if the Chinese do fulfill their promise of 440 million bushels (and they are currently at an estimated 260 million), it will be a considerable drop from last year. Other countries are taking up part of the difference, but large crops from South America are making it difficult for the US.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9839\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141151.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"784\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141151.png 784w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141151-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141151-768x546.png 768w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141151-18x12.png 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 784px) 100vw, 784px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Figure 2: Front-month futures for CBOT soybean oil<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Next, we move to soyoil, specifically focusing on the US market. Soyoil has been dropping, for several reasons. There is some uncertainty in the US EPA requirements for diesel biofuel, which uses a majority of soyoil. Also,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehealthy.com\/news\/university-of-california-riverside-oil-weight-gain-study-december-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a recent health study showed that eating soyoil can lead to weight gain<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehealthy.com\/news\/university-of-california-riverside-oil-weight-gain-study-december-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">.<\/a>\u00a0Soyoil is used extensively in processed foods, and this is unwelcome news for soyoil. As a final blow to soyoil prices,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rrfn.com\/2025\/12\/16\/soybean-oil-stocks-surge-40-percent\/#%3A~%3Atext%3DGet%20a%20weekly%20digest%20from%20RRFN%20to%2Con%20all%20the%20latest%20news%20in%20agriculture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">soyoil stocks have surged 40%<\/a>\u00a0yoy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141249.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"799\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141249.png 799w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141249-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141249-768x555.png 768w, https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-22-141249-18x12.png 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Figure 3: Front-month futures for CBOT soybean meal<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">We now turn to soymeal, a high-protein feed for livestock, so it is not as visible to consumers. A big factor for soymeal is the South American soybean crop. They are getting some rain now, ahead of the January planting, which is expected to help their upcoming crop.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfdtv.com\/soymeal-futures-slide-as-south-america-planting-points-to-large-crop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Since Argentina is a<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfdtv.com\/soymeal-futures-slide-as-south-america-planting-points-to-large-crop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">large global exporter of soymeal,<\/a>\u00a0the soymeal futures are down. Of course, the weather is volatile, but a good start on the crop is, for now, driving prices down.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, what is the best way to trade this information, and that usually implies knowing what direction the price is going to move. In this case,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/think.ing.com\/articles\/tighter-times-ahead-for-the-soybean-market\/#%3A~%3Atext%3DFarmers%20reduced%20soybean%20plantings%20amid%2Ca%20little%20under%20116m%20tonnes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ING has a specific, well-thought-out recommendation.<\/a>\u00a0Since the US market is oversupplied, it is very likely that farmers will reduce the acres devoted to soybeans, which will cause supplies to drop and prices to increase. So, the long-term trend will turn upward.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Ken Rietz Soybeans seem to be the only agricultural game in town. Most other ag reports align fairly closely with market expectations. There is also little excitement in soybeans, for that matter, with people making guesses regarding how many millions of bushels of soybeans China will \u201cforget\u201d to order from the US. But since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9841,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions\/9841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundamentalanalytics.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}