Chicago soybeans edge lower after notching 3-year high on China demand
- The most-traded soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 0.7% to $13.23-1/4 a bushel
BEIJING: Chicago soybean futures edged lower on Friday after notching life-of-contract highs in the last session amid China’s purchase of US beans before the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wheat and corn also dropped.
The most-traded soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 0.7% to $13.23-1/4 a bushel by 0255 GMT.
CBOT wheat dropped 0.9% at $7.35-1/4 a bushel, while corn lost 0.8% to $5.29-1/4 a bushel.
Soybeans gained 1%, wheat rose 0.2% and corn fell 1.4% so far this week.
Soybean futures jumped to their highest point in three-year supported by Chinese demand in the last session.
China has bought around 1 million metric tons of US soybeans this week, traders told Reuters, as the world’s top oilseed buyer steps up purchases ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month.
The purchases take China’s total US soybean buying to nearly half of the 25 million tons the White House said Beijing had committed to annually through 2028.
The US Department of Agriculture also confirmed additional Chinese purchases of US soybeans on Wednesday and Thursday.
In Brazil, the world’s largest soybeans producer and exporter, soy exports are seen reaching 7.74 million metric tons in September versus 6.97 million tons in the same period last year, according to grain exporters union ANEC.
On grains, the run-up to the USDA supply and demand forecasts on Friday encouraged profit-taking by investors, who have built up a large long position in wheat.
The USDA’s forecasts on Friday are expected to indicate the extent to which hot, dry spells this summer hurt US Midwest crops.
Market participants also continue to monitor Black Sea tensions and grain export disruption in the key grain production region.
Renewed diplomatic moves to end Russia’s war with Ukraine have weighed on prices, though more Russian attacks on Thursday, including one on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that damaged a vegetable oil factory of US agrifood group Bunge, kept attention on continuing disruption to the massive Black Sea grain trade.
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