CHICAGO: US 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 US Department of Agriculture crop data on Monday.
China’s Sinograin bought at least 10 cargoes of US 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 US 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 US shipments.
Earlier, the USDA confirmed that exporters had sold 198,000 metric tons of US soybeans to unknown buyers, after it reported sales of 132,000 tons of US 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 closed up 1-1/4 cents at USD10.62-1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. For the week, the contract rose 1.6 percent.
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 US grain stocks as of December 1. The agency was widely expected to trim its estimate of the average corn yield in last year’s US harvest, and peg the winter wheat area for 2026 below last year’s level.
CBOT March wheat slipped 3/4 cent to USD5.17-1/4 per bushel and climbed about 2.1 percent for the week. CBOT March corn slipped 1/4 cent to USD4.45-3/4 per bushel and gained about 1.9 percent for the week.
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