Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures jumped to their highest level in about a month on Thursday on spillover strength from rallying vegetable oil markets, traders said.
Corn futures also closed higher and exceeded a one-month peak.
Surging prices for CBOT soyoil and Malaysian palm oil supported soybeans and overshadowed questions over when U.S. farmers may feel impacts from heightened trade tensions with China, following Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president.
Soyoil soared to a four-month high on solid demand, while palm oil FCPOc3 rose after climbing on Wednesday to the highest level in more than two years.
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“Palm oil has been going crazy on the upside,” said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa.
CBOT soybeans Sv1 finished up 22-1/2 at $10.26-1/4 per bushel and reached the highest level since Oct. 8 in the most-active contract. Technical buying accelerated gains, brokers said.
In soyoil, December futures BOZ24 advanced 1.98 cents to 48.32 cents per pound.
Weekly U.S. soyoil export sales for 2024-25 were 114,300 metric tons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, crushing analysts’ estimates for zero to 50,000 tons.
Expectations that Trump may impose tariffs on U.S. imports of used cooking oil also supported domestic demand projections for soyoil, traders said.
On Wednesday, soybean futures recovered after sinking on concerns that U.S. soy exports to China will suffer due to Trump’s pledges to slap tariffs on Chinese goods.
A tariff battle with Beijing may not affect U.S. soybean export sales until next summer, though, and importers could increase buying before Trump takes office in January, traders said.
“There’s a lot of undertones and possibilities here that could be very much different than just ‘Trump’s elected. We’re going straight into a trade war,'” said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading.
CBOT wheat Wv1 fell 1-3/4 cents to $5.71-1/2 per bushel. Corn futures Cv1 rose 1-1/4 cents to $4.27-1/2 per bushel and reached the highest since Oct. 3.
Strong demand from importers and domestic buyers underpinned corn, said traders, who will examine monthly USDA crop data on Friday.
—Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra
