GRAINS-US soy futures hit June 2024 high on expectations for Chinese buying

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures climbed to the highest level since June 2024 on Monday as President Donald Trump's administration fueled expectations for sales to China following the countries' recent trade deal.

Corn futures also rose, while wheat futures set their highest price since July.

After Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month, officials in Washington said China agreed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans by year-end and 25 million tons in each of the next three years. China has yet to officially confirm what was agreed in the talks and purchased only minimal volumes so far.

"We've already just got about 330,000 [tons] out, but we'll get there," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a clip of a Fox Business interview that was posted on platform X by a White House account.

"We're going to get that deal signed. It's not even signed yet. And then we're off to the races," she added.

On Friday, Trump said China would buy U.S. soybeans and other farm products, and that Washington and Beijing had held talks on the subject.

Most-active soybean futures Sv1 jumped 29-3/4 cents to $11.54-1/4 a bushel by 11:40 a.m. CST (1740 GMT). Corn Cv1 gained 5-1/2 cents to $4.35-3/4 a bushel, and wheat Wv1 rallied 14-1/2 cents to $5.45-1/2 a bushel.

"Soybeans are rising because of the comments by President Trump late on Friday saying China will buy more soybeans from the U.S." said Matt Ammermann, commodity risk manager at StoneX.

Still, analysts said it remained unclear whether China had agreed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of the calendar year or by the end of the marketing season on August 31.

China, the world's biggest soybean importer, turned to South America for supplies during its dispute with Washington. It is now grappling with a glut after months of record imports, curbing prospects for U.S. exports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture slightly pared its U.S. soybean export estimate for the current crop season on Friday. Some analysts said the estimate still looked too high.

On Monday, the USDA revised a report that 232,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans were sold to China on November 3. The correct quantity was 132,000 metric tons, as 100,000 metric tons have been cancelled, the agency said.