US grain and soyabean futures crumbled on Friday as traders booked profits after being spooked by a US air strike in Iraq that escalated geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The strike put markets on edge and opened the door for a setback a day after most-active soyabean and wheat each hit 2018 highs, traders said. Wall Street's major indexes also fell, while hog futures dropped by their daily trading limit.
The Chicago Board of Trade's most-active soyabean contract dropped 1.8% to $9.39-1/2 a bushel by 11:10 a.m. CST (1710 GMT). It was a turnaround after the most-active contract on Thursday touched its highest price since June 2018.
Wheat was down 1.2% at $5.53-3/4 a bushel at the CBOT, after the most-active contract reached its highest price since August 2018 on Thursday. Corn slid 1% to $3.87-1/2 a bushel.
Analysts said they expected the markets would soon shift their focus from the US strike on an Iranian commander in Iraq back to an initial US-China trade deal and the release of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop data next week.
Traders are waiting for the USDA to issue crop production data on Jan. 10 amid uncertainty about the size of the autumn corn harvest, which was delayed by cold, wet weather.
The USDA said total net US soyabean export sales last week were 332,047 tonnes, below analysts' expectations for 350,000 tonnes to 1.05 million tonnes. This included 330,344 tonnes for 2019/2020 delivery, a marketing-year low. China bought 160,241 tonnes for 2019/20, including about 132,000 tonnes switched from unknown destinations, according to the USDA.
Weekly US wheat export sales of 333,250 tonnes were toward the low end of analysts' estimates, while corn sales of 539,991 tonnes were within expectations.