Soybean futures contracts traded on the CBOT closed the fifth week of January with lower prices, accumulating nine consecutive sessions of decline for soybeans. This is the second biggest negative sequence since July 2014, when ten consecutive losses were registered. Eleven out of the last twelve sessions closed lower. For the week the March position accumulated a 3.27% decline. In January, the same contract fell 8.69%.
The market remains with a negative bias amid the spread of coronavirus in China and other countries. The outbreak may represent a reduction in Chinese demand for grain, frustrating expectations of increase in the demand from the country after the signing of the first phase of the agreement with the United States on January 15. The arrival of a new record crop in Brazil completes the bearish picture.