Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures hovered near a 15-month high on Wednesday after trade sources said China made its first purchases from the autumn U.S. harvest ahead of a summit between leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
Prices remained below Tuesday’s top, the highest price since July 2024, as traders said the U.S. needed to win more and bigger deals after China shunned American soy during its trade conflict with Washington.
China’s state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes, two trade sources said.
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“It’s a start, but three cargoes is not a huge number,” said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne.
CBOT November soybean futures ended 2 cents stronger at $10.80-1/4 per bushel after rising as high as $11.08 on Tuesday.
Grain futures also crept higher. CBOT corn Cv1 rose 2 cents to close at $4.34 per bushel after rising to $4.36-1/4 on Tuesday, which was its highest since early July.
Wheat Wv1 finished up 3-1/4 cents at $5.32-1/4 per bushel after reaching $5.35 on Tuesday, its highest since mid-September.
COFCO’s deal for December-January shipment of about 180,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans was China’s first such buy in months. Traders do not expect a significant resumption in demand for U.S. cargoes after recent large South American purchases.
“We’re going to need to see significant more follow up to get things excited,” Wiegand said.
Traders were waiting to see whether China makes more purchases or commits to future deals as Trump and Xi were set to meet in South Korea on Thursday.
China may need between 5 million and 10 million metric tons of soybeans to fill a supply gap before it begins to receive new-crop Brazilian beans next year, said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for StoneX.
“Larger shipments than that are needed to provide longer term strength to soybean demand,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended weekly export sales reports, normally published on Thursdays, and daily sales announcements due to the federal government’s shutdown. Analysts estimated weekly U.S. soybean export sales were 600,000 to 1.6 million metric tons.
— Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Peter Hobson in Beijing and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
