Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures plummeted on Friday as trade restrictions announced by China and escalating rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump cooled hopes of a resolution to a standoff between Washington and Beijing that has halted Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans.
Trump on Friday said there was no reason to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping in two weeks in South Korea as planned, adding in a Truth Social post that the United States is calculating a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese imports.
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“There’s concern with trade talks going forward,” said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade Sv1 settled 15-1/2 cents lower at $10.06-3/4 per bushel.
The soybean market has been wrestling with the absence of Chinese purchases of the new U.S. crop amid the two countries’ wider trade war.
China’s expansion of export controls on rare earth metals on Thursday, followed on Friday by its announcement of retaliatory port fees on vessels owned or operated by U.S. interests, dampened expectations of progress to settle the trade dispute.
Trump said China has been sending letters to countries worldwide saying it planned to impose export controls on every element of production related to rare earths.
“Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would ‘clog’ the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China,” Trump said in the Truth Social post.
CBOT corn Cv1 settled 5-1/4 cents lower at $4.13 per bushel, and CBOT wheat Wv1 settled 10 cents lower to end at $4.98-1/2 per bushel.
Record projected global supply of wheat, including large harvests expected in Argentina and Australia in the coming weeks, hung over the wheat market.
Corn followed wheat lower, with harvest pressure from the U.S. Midwest also adding downward momentum to futures.
The U.S. government shutdown has also forced the Trump administration to delay planned aid for farmers affected by the loss of soybean export sales to China.
— Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra
