CANBERRA – Chicago soybean futures extended gains on Thursday after shooting up 2 percent in the previous session when US President Donald Trump said he would pause tariff increases on dozens of countries to allow time for trade negotiations.
Trump’s stunning U-turn sent equities and oil prices sharply higher and raised hopes that some disruption of agricultural trade can be avoided, despite his decision to raise tariffs again on China, the biggest buyer of US farm goods.
Corn futures rose and wheat edged lower.
Traders feared that more countries would follow China and block US imports, reducing demand for US crops and putting downward pressure on Chicago prices, said Commonwealth Bank analyst Dennis Voznesenski.
But so far few have done so and Trump’s de-escalation reduces the risk that they will, he said.
“Now that Trump’s pushed back the larger tariffs, the market is less concerned that those countries will retaliate,” he said.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.2 percent at $10.15 a bushel at corn rose 0.2 percent to $4.74-3/4 a bushel and wheat Wv1 was down 0.1 percent at $5.42 a bushel.
