CHICAGO, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybean futures opened higher on Thursday, with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) supply and demand report to be released on the same day.
Traders and funds gear up to trade the USDA report with volume often sagging thereafter into the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday. CBOT values overnight are mixed with soybeans continuing to gain on the grains. Funds favor long soybean versus short grains.
January soybeans were up 0.25 cent at 9.9875 U.S. dollars per bushel as of 1600 GMT in the morning trading, December corn was down 0.5 cent at 3.4775 dollars, while December wheat was up 4 cents at 4.3075 dollars.
Wednesday's CBOT preliminary open interest indicated a 2,438 contract gain in corn, a 7891 contract gain in soybeans, and a 11,050 fall in wheat.
As for global market, Brazil's agricultural agency CONAB estimated their 2018 soybean harvest in a range of 106.4-108.63 million tonnes with corn at 91.6-93.05 million tonnes. Both estimates are close to the USDA October forecast of 107 million tonnes for soybeans and 95 million tonnes for corn.
Analysts say it's still too early to make any real assessment of Brazilian corn and soybean crops with planting just 60 percent completed with the entire growing season ahead.
