U.S. grains: Soybean futures hit one-month high on U.S.-China trade hopes

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures hit their highest level in a month on Monday on renewed optimism over U.S.-China trade talks after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Beijing would agree to a soybean trade deal and will buy U.S. soy again.

Corn and wheat futures followed soybeans higher but ample supplies of both crops kept a lid on rallies.

November soybeans SX25 were up 12-1/4 cents at $10.31-3/4 per bushel after reaching $10.33-3/4, the contract’s highest since Sept. 19.

CBOT December corn was up 3/4 of a cent at $4.23-1/4 a bushel and December wheat was up one cent at $5.04-3/4 a bushel.

Soybeans rose ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month. Trump said on Sunday he wanted to buy soybeans “at least in the amount they were buying before” and that he believed a soybean deal would be reached.

“The trade just wants to believe (that) maybe something positive comes out of this,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities. “The funds have quit trying to press the (soybean futures) market,” Roose said.

China imported no soybeans from the U.S. in September, the first time since November 2018 that shipments fell to zero, with Chinese buyers turning to South American supplies during the U.S. trade war.

Corn futures drew strength from soybeans’ climb, but worries about U.S. tensions with Colombia, a major buyer of U.S. corn, hung over the market, Roose said.

“We are pressing Colombia now, one of our top-five corn buyers. That took the bloom off,” Roose said.

Colombia recalled its ambassador from Washington after Trump said he would raise tariffs on the South American nation and stop all payments to it, intensifying a feud stemming from U.S. military strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs.

Meanwhile, U.S. farmers continue to harvest corn and soybeans. No reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s statistical arm were scheduled this week due to the ongoing government shutdown. But analysts surveyed by Reuters on average estimated that the U.S. soybean crop was 73 per cent harvested by Sunday and the corn harvest was 59 per cent complete.

In Brazil, the 2025/26 soybean crop was 24 per cent planted as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday.

— Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Ella Cao, Lewis Jackson, and Michael Hogan