March 21st, 2012

Soybean futures may rebound from their biggest decline since January on speculation that next week’s U.S. Department of Agriculture planting report will show farmers didn’t increase oilseed planting.

The USDA’s prospective plantings report, scheduled to be released on March 30 in Washington, may show a 11 percent rise in soybean futures this year hasn’t encouraged farmers to increase acres, said Erin FitzPatrick, an analyst at Rabobank International. Growers may increase area seeded with corn, which is little changed since Jan. 1, she said.

“I’m not confident soybeans have bought much acreage from corn in the U.S.,” London-based FitzPatrick said in an e-mail today. “Soybeans will probably be fairly range bound until we get next Friday’s USDA release. Fundamentally there isn’t a lot of downside from here.”

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