Soybeans hit longest slump since dot.com era as China sales lag

The last time soybeans slumped for this long Google was still three months away from being founded.  

The oilseed used in everything from renewable fuel to salad dressing ends October with its sixth straight monthly loss, the worst run since May 1998. That year, like 2021, U.S. farmers were heading into a record harvest. 

Demand for this year’s bumper crop is in question, though, as the pace of sales to China lag expectations. Some analysts expect the export forecast to be trimmed in the U.S. government’s next supply-and-demand report due Nov. 9. Hedge fund managers this month slashed bullish bets on the beans to the lowest since June 2020.

“China isn’t buying as aggressively as anticipated at all,” said Dan Cekander, a fourth-generation soybean farmer and head of DC Analytics in Illinois. “They really need to step it up.”