SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures ticked lower on Friday but the market is poised for its biggest weekly gain in more than five months on signs of easing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Wheat is set to end the week on a positive note after dropping for the last three weeks with expectations of higher demand for U.S. wheat supporting the market.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade is up more than 4 percent this week, the biggest weekly rally since late May.
Soybeans were down 0.3 percent at $8.79 a bushel as of 0258 GMT after closing up 3.6 percent in the previous session, when prices hit their highest since Oct. 17 at $8.88-1/2 a bushel.
"Soybeans have eased a little bit after strong gains as some investors are taking profit," said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist, National Australia Bank. "Overall, the market remains supported by optimism on U.S.-China trade relations."
In China, the most-active soymeal futures fell by the maximum 5 percent at the market open, as traders reacted to the positive tone of a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump and Xi both expressed optimism about resolving a bitter trade dispute, with Trump saying on Twitter that trade discussions with China were "moving along nicely," and that he planned to meet with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit, after the two had a "very good" phone discussion.
Wheat was up 0.2 percent for the week after losing three percent in the past as many weeks while corn is down 0.7 percent this week, having closed almost unchanged in the previous week.
Net corn export sales last week totalled less than 400,000 tonnes for the third straight week while net soybean sales totalled just 455,807 tonnes, compared with nearly 2 million tonnes in the same week last year, USDA data showed. .
Net wheat export sales, however, topped trade expectations at 582,545 tonnes, including 50,000 tonnes to Egypt.
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