GRAINS-Soybean futures hover near 15-month high after China buys US cargoes

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures hovered near a 15-month high on Wednesday after sources said China made its first purchases from the autumn U.S. harvest before a summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Prices remained below a July 2024 high reached on Tuesday as traders said the U.S. needed to win more deals after China shunned American soy during its trade conflict with Washington.

China's state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes, two trade sources said.

"It's a start, but three cargoes is not a huge number," said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne.

Most-active soybean futures Sv1 were up 4-3/4 cents at $10.83 per bushel by 12:45 p.m. CDT (1745 GMT), after rising as high as $11.08 on Tuesday.

Grain futures also crept higher. CBOT corn Cv1 gained 2 cents to $4.34 a bushel, after rising to $4.36-1/4 on Tuesday, its highest since early July.

Wheat Wv1 rose 1 cent to $5.30 a bushel, after reaching $5.35 on Tuesday, its highest since mid-September.

COFCO's deal for December-January shipment of about 180,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans was China's first such buy in months. Traders do not expect a significant resumption in demand for U.S. cargoes after recent large South American purchases.

"We're going to need to see significant more follow up to get things excited," Wiegand said.

Traders were waiting to see whether top-importer China makes more purchases or commits to future deals as Trump and Xi were set to meet in South Korea on Thursday.

As the two nations have battled over trade tariffs, the lack of Chinese buying has cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales.

China may need between 5 million and 10 million metric tons of soybeans to fill a supply gap before it begins to receive new-crop Brazilian beans next year, said StoneX analyst Arlan Suderman.

If this quantity were bought from the United States, "that would certainly help the U.S. balance sheet, but it wouldn't be enough to justify rationing demand with higher prices," he wrote in a note to clients.

"Larger shipments than that are needed to provide longer term strength to soybean demand."