-- Biofuels feedstock futures closed higher on Thursday, supported by a strong soybean oil market and a neutral-to-bullish US Department of Agriculture report.
The Chicago Board of Trade May soybean futures contract closed 0.28% higher at $11.65 per bushel, while the CBOT May soybean oil futures contract settled 0.42% higher at 67.70 cents per pound.
On Wednesday, the May ethanol futures contract on the Nymex ended 1.76% lower at $1.95 per gallon.
On Thursday, the USDA reported sales of 136,000 metric tons of corn for delivery to South Korea during the 2025-2026 marketing year.
Ethanol makers will use 5.6 billion bushels of corn in the 2025-2026 marketing year that started on Sept. 1, the USDA said in a monthly report Thursday. That's unchanged from the March outlook for 5.6 billion bushels.
Total US corn use for 2025-2026 is forecast at 16.47 billion bushels. That's equal to last month's outlook.
USDA estimated 350 million bushels of US ending soybean stocks for 2025-2026, unchanged from March and within pre-report expectations. USDA held their demand estimate for the season steady at 4.262 bb, cutting exports by 35 mb but offsetting with increased crush.
Biodiesel makers will use 14 billion pounds of soybean oil in the 2025-2026 marketing year that started Oct. 1. That's unchanged from the March outlook, and higher than the 11.8 billion pounds used in the 2024/2025 marketing year.
The USDA estimated US soybean oil 2025/2026 ending stocks at 1.84 billion pounds, compared with 1.78 billion in March.