Tidbits, $12 Soybeans & NOPA Crush, Tariffs, Wheat Trade, ENSO, Export Inspections 11/18/25
- Wright team
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Tidbits
December CBOT options expire Friday.
Soybean futures were supported Sunday night and yesterday morning by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s weekend comment that he expects a trade deal with China to be signed perhaps by Thanksgiving and expressed confidence China would buy U.S. soybeans, just a little later than we were told in late October.
Then just before noon, the NOPA reported its soybean crush for October. It was 227.647 million bushels, 18 million more bushels than the 209.5 million bushels market expected. It was an all-time monthly record and for any month and topped all analyst guesses. Soy oil stocks 1.305 billion pounds, up 21.5% from last year and above the market expectation of 1.257 billion pounds.
That crush news boosted soybean futures as January beans settled 32¢ higher, 43¢ away from $12.
Speaking of $12 beans, Cargill’s Sidney, Ohio crush plant sent a text message yesterday that it would contract soybeans now at $12 for May delivery using a “premium option contract.” That is a forward contract locking in a cash price for the old crop beans and then that price is boosted by Cargill writing a call option (selling an option before buying it) for the new crop, adding the option premium to the soybean contract price. Of course, Cargill will keep a healthy service fee of 4 to 8¢ a bushel. If the call gets exercised, the seller of the old crop beans will have a new crop HTA assigned to him at the strike price of the call option.
Want to read more?
Subscribe to wrightonthemarket.com to keep reading this exclusive post.