Farmers are still on track to produce a record U.S. soybean crop, but the real story from last week’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop report series is unrelenting demand that continues to eat away at supplies, said Darin Newsom, DTN senior market analyst.

In its monthly supply and de­­mand report, the USDA reduced soybean ending stocks for the 2017-18 soybean crop by 45 million bushels from its September estimate. Ending stocks are now projected at 430 million bushels, but traders are speculating that supplies will be even lower than that, considering that the USDA has been too high on ending soybean stocks four years in a row, Newsom said.

“We are constantly seeing domestic ending stocks overestimated, and usually it’s because...