U.S. grains: Soybean futures rise on active Chinese buying

Chicago | Reuters – U.S. soybean futures edged higher on Friday on increased Chinese demand for American supplies.

Wheat and corn futures finished nearly unchanged as traders adjusted positions in agricultural markets ahead of the release of much-anticipated U.S. Department of Agriculture crop data on Monday.

China’s Sinograin bought at least 10 cargoes of U.S. soybeans, or at least 600,000 metric tons, for shipment in April and May on Friday, three traders with knowledge of the deals said.

Traders have closely tracked China’s demand since U.S. officials said last year that the world’s biggest soybean importer agreed to buy 12 million tons of American supplies as part of a late-October trade truce.

On January 13, Sinograin will auction 1.1 million metric tons of imported soybeans as the state stockpiler works to make room for arriving U.S. shipments.

Earlier, the USDA confirmed that exporters had sold 198,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans to unknown buyers, after it reported sales of 132,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China on Thursday.

“The trade seems to mark each of the unknown sales as China sales,” StoneX analyst Bevan Everett said in a note.

March soybean futures SH26 closed up 1-1/4 cents at $10.62-1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. For the week, the contract rose 1.6 per cent.

Traders also monitored investor flows linked to annual changes in the composition of commodity indexes and awaited USDA’s crop reports.

“Traders will wait to see what the USDA gives us on Monday to make their next move,” Cory Bratland, a hedging strategist for AgMarket.Net, said in a report.

The USDA’s reports on Monday will include estimates for winter wheat plantings and last year’s corn and soybean harvests, along with data on U.S. grain stocks as of December 1.

The agency was widely expected to trim its estimate of the average corn yield in last year’s U.S. harvest, and peg the winter wheat area for 2026 below last year’s level.

CBOT March wheat WH26 slipped 3/4 cent to $5.17-1/4 per bushel and climbed about 2.1 per cent for the week. CBOT March corn CH26 slipped 1/4 cent to $4.45-3/4 per bushel and gained about 1.9 per cent for the week.

-Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; and Gus Trompiz in Paris