CBOT soybeans touch 16-month high on optimism about demand from China

CHICAGO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures set 16-month highs on Monday on expectations that China will restart large-scale U.S. soy buying after the two countries reached a deal to de-escalate their trade war, brokers said.

• CBOT January soybeans SF26 settled up 19 cents at $11.34-1/4 per bushel after reaching $11.35-3/4, the highest reading on a continuous chart of the most-active soybean contract Sv1 since June 2024.

• Technical buying by speculators accelerated at the start of a new month, one analyst said.

• CBOT December soymeal SMZ25 ended down 80 cents at $320.80 per short ton on oil-meal spreading, while December soyoil BOZ25 rose 1.16 cents to finish at 49.84 cents per pound.

• Soybean futures briefly turned lower on news that Chinese soybean importers stepped up purchases of Brazilian cargoes in recent days, but markets quickly rallied again.

• Markets rose last week after the U.S. said China would buy millions of tons of U.S. soybeans as part of a trade deal. China has shunned U.S. soybeans during the trade dispute, buying from South America instead.

• Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported export inspections of U.S. soybeans in the latest week at 965,063 metric tons, in line with a range of trade expectations for 800,000 to 1,400,000 tons. USDA/I

• None of the soybeans inspected for export were headed to China, the USDA data showed.

• The U.S. soybean harvest was 91% complete as of Sunday and the corn harvest was 83% finished, according to a Reuters poll of nine analysts.

• Brazil's soybean planting reached 47% of the expected area as of last Thursday, up from 36% a week earlier, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said.