US soyabean futures scaled to two-week peaks on Friday on signs of easing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, but slipped from the highs after a White House official said he was less optimistic that a trade deal could be reached. Corn futures also climbed, lifted by expectations for a cut to the US Agriculture Department's US crop forecast in a monthly report next week, while wheat edged up in tandem with firming corn.
Soyabeans posted their steepest gain in four months on Thursday after US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about trade and agreed to meet this month at the G-20 meeting in Argentina. The rally put the soya market on track for the strongest weekly advance in 16 months. Chicago Board of Trade January soyabeans were up 3-1/2 cents at $8.85-1/2 a bushel at 12:47 p.m. CDT (1747 GMT) after peaking at a two-week high of $9.00-3/4.
CBOT December corn added 4-1/2 cents to $3.71-1/4 a bushel, while CBOT December wheat was up 1-3/4 at $5.09-3/4 a bushel. Positioning ahead of next week's monthly US Department of Agriculture supply-and-demand report buoyed both corn and soyabeans amid expectations that the government would lower its yield estimates after some areas of the Midwest were hit by poor harvest weather.
Analytics firm Informa Economics cut its outlook for both crops on Friday, trimming its corn yield forecast by 2.4 bushels per acre (bpa) to 179.7 bpa, according to trade sources that viewed the report. It also trimmed its soyabean yield estimate to 52.6 bpa, down 0.4 bpa. The USDA is due to release its monthly report next Thursday.
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