SYDNEY: US soybeans extended gains on Monday into a fifth consecutive session as prices lingered near their highest since July 2016, though rising trade tensions between the world's two largest economies capped the advances.
US President Donald Trump announced last week he would impose hefty tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to protect US producers, risking retaliation from major trade partners such as China, Europe and neighboring Canada.
Wheat climbed, rebounding from a 3 percent fall in the previous session, as adverse weather conditions across the US plains provided support to prices, while corn remained little changed.
The most active soybean futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.1 percent at $10.71-1/4 a bushel, as of 0353 GMT, having firmed 0.3 percent on Friday, when prices hit $10.82-1/2 a bushel, its highest since July 14, 2016.
The most active wheat futures climbed 0.4 percent to $5.01-3/4 a bushel, after closing down 3 percent in the previous session, when prices had touched $5.18-1/2 a bushel, the steepest since July 2017.
The most active corn futures were little changed at $3.85 a bushel, having closed down 0.3 percent on Friday.
Analysts said soybeans continue to draw support from dry weather across Argentina, which is expected to crimp global production, though the threat that US soybeans could be drawn into a trade dispute with China curbed further gains.
"Soybeans remain the focus as supply tightens," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy, Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "The founder of the New Hope Group, one of China's biggest pig-breeding companies, said so on Friday. But he also said they will have to find alternative feed sources if US soybeans become ensnared in the dispute."
South American exporters, however, would benefit a wide trade dispute as they pose stiff competition to the US sellers.
Crop conditions for drought-battered corn and soybeans in Argentina worsened this week and ratings among the top three provinces are now on average about 23 percentage points lower than a month ago.
Private analytics firm Informa Economics on Friday cut its forecast for Argentina's 2017/2018 soybean harvest by 7 million tonnes to 44 million tonnes.
The US Department of Agriculture said on Friday its private exporters reported a sale of 198,000 tonnes of soybeans to China, in the second day in a row that a sale to the world's biggest buyer of the oilseed has been announced.
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