GRAINS-Soybeans touch 16-month high, wheat firms on Chinese demand hopes

By Julie Ingwersen

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

Wheat also rose on hopes of renewed Chinese buying and corn followed the higher trend.

Chicago Board of Trade benchmark January soybeans Sv1 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 since June 2024.

CBOT December wheat WZ25 ended up 9-1/2 cents at $5.43-1/2 a bushel and December corn CZ25 finished 2-3/4 cents higher at $4.34-1/4 a bushel.

Hopes for renewed Chinese demand continued to drive U.S. grain markets. Soy, wheat and corn futures briefly turned lower on news that Chinese soybean importers stepped up purchases of Brazilian cargoes in recent days, but markets quickly rallied again.

"There is still uncertainty on what the real deal is with China," said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities. However, Roose said, "it sounds more positive than negative, so we just add more risk premium to the market."

Technical buying accelerated at the start of a new month, he added.

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.

Support also came from reports China was interested in buying U.S. wheat.

But the U.S. government shutdown is depriving dealers of U.S. export sales data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

China last week bought three U.S. soybean shipments, traders said, marking the country's first purchases from this year's U.S. harvest.

Market players are awaiting announcements from China about reductions in punitive import tariffs on U.S. agricultural products that would open the door to more U.S. sales.

After Monday's close, commodity brokerage StoneX raised its estimate of the average U.S. 2025 corn yield to 186.0 bushels per acre, from 185.9 in its previous monthly report. For soybeans, StoneX lowered its forecast of the U.S. yield to 53.6 bushels per acre from 53.9 previously.

The USDA said on Friday it would release a U.S. crop production report and world agricultural supply and demand estimates on November 14. The USDA has not released the routine monthly reports since September due to the government shutdown.