US soyabean futures neared a one-month low on Monday as traders watched and waited for China to make further purchases after re-entering the market recently as trade tensions eased. Corn futures also came under pressure from disappointment over a lack of demand from China, traders said.
China bought US soyabeans on December 12, the first big deals in six months, after US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met on December 1 and set a 90-day negotiating window to resolve their trade differences. Still, US cargoes face hefty tariffs that Beijing imposed as part of the conflict between the world's two largest economies.
Without new sales to China, and as financial markets remain volatile, grain traders were reluctant to push crop prices higher, said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for US broker INTL FCStone. "They really don't want to go out on a limb and build any kind of ownership," Suderman said.
The Chicago Board of Trade's most actively traded March soyabean futures ended down 0.1 percent at $8.97 a bushel. The contract earlier dropped to $8.92-1/4, its lowest price since November 28. Most-active corn futures slipped 0.2 percent to $3.77-3/4 a bushel, while CBOT wheat rose 0.4 percent to $5.16-1/2 a bushel.
China's soyabean imports from the United States plunged to zero in November in a sign of the trade war's impact on shipments. That was the first time since the fight started that China, the world's largest soyabean buyer, imported no US supplies.
Instead, China has looked to South America to replace US cargoes. Brazil is set to harvest a massive crop in the coming months, fuelling worries among US farmers that China will continue buying from South America. "The problem for the bean market is that the US is rapidly losing its window for sales before South American beans become available," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa.