Chicago soy, corn and wheat higher with trade talks, weather in focus

BEIJING/PARIS: Chicago soybean, corn and wheat futures edged higher on Friday as looming U.S.-China talks raised hopes of an easing in trade tensions.

A lower dollar and brisk weekly U.S. exports also helped corn recover from a six-week low on Thursday, while concern about adverse weather in China was lending support to wheat, traders said.

Gains remained capped by favourable crop conditions in the United States. There was also caution over the outcome of Saturday’s meeting between senior U.S. and Chinese officials and ahead of a widely tracked U.S. Department of Agriculture report on Monday.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.4% at $10.49 a bushel by 1109 GMT.

“The market will be looking to U.S.-China relations after the UK-U.S. trade agreement. Can the two nations find a solution to get their trade ties back on track?” said Andrew Whitelaw of agricultural consultants Episode 3.

EU wheat claws back some losses after sliding to contract lows

The soybean market has been particularly sensitive to the tariff stand-off between China, the world’s biggest soybean importer, and the United States, the world’s second-largest exporter of the oilseed.

In South America, Argentina’s Buenos Aires Grains Exchange raised its 2024–25 soybean harvest forecast to 50 million metric tons from 48.6 million on Thursday, citing improved yields.

CBOT corn rose 1.2% to $4.53 a bushel, while CBOT wheat added 0.6% to $5.32-1/2 a bushel to recover from a one-week low on Thursday.

After being pressured by improving U.S. crop conditions and forecast rain in the Black Sea export region, the wheat market has found support in drought concerns in China.

On Tuesday, China’s Henan province, known as the country’s wheat granary, issued a drought warning, as hot, dry winds threatened crops.

“People are monitoring the weather in China. If they have a crop problem they are going to have to come back into the market for imports,” a European trader said.

Traders were also positioning ahead of the USDA’s world crop report on Monday that will include its first supply and demand balance sheets for 2025–26.