Chicago | Reuters — U.S. farmers cheered the Trump administration’s announcement of a potentially dramatic increase in U.S. agricultural sales to China on Friday but warned they needed to see a follow-through of actual purchases. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the agricultural purchases could scale up to $40 billion-$50 billion annually as part of a […] Read more

U.S. farmers cheered by apparent trade truce

U.S. grains: Corn falls after higher yield estimate surprises traders
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures dropped to their lowest prices in more than a week on Thursday after the U.S. Agriculture Department surprised traders by raising its domestic yield estimate in a monthly crop report. The losses dragged down soybean futures, which earlier approached a three-month high on lower-than-expected U.S. yield and ending […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Hogs slip despite record-large pork sales to China
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures sagged on Thursday as the confirmation of record-large weekly pork export sales to China failed to impress traders who have been expecting a surge in demand for months. Uncertainty about when the pork will be shipped to China also kept a lid on gains, traders said. The […] Read more

JBS USA to produce pork without ractopamine
Chicago | Reuters — JBS USA will remove a growth drug banned by Beijing from its U.S. hog supply, the company said on Friday, accelerating the competition for pork exports as China grapples with a devastating pig disease. The meat packer’s move away from the drug ractopamine, a feed additive, shows how companies are maneuvering […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soy tops two-month high on China buying, inventory shock
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures prices rose to the highest level in more than two months on Tuesday, adding to gains from the previous session when Chinese purchases and a lower-than-expected estimate of U.S. stockpiles buoyed prices. Corn also advanced after rallying four per cent on Monday as a quarterly U.S. Department of […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Hogs retreat from Monday’s two-month high
Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. livestock futures fell on Tuesday as hogs retreated from a two-month high reached a day earlier. December lean hog futures sank 2.675 cents to 69.925 cents/lb. at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (all figures US$). The setback came after the contract reached its highest price since July 31 on Monday amid […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soy, corn rally on smaller-than-expected stockpiles
Chicago | Reuters — China bought more U.S. soybeans on Monday as the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported crop stockpiles were smaller than traders expected, sending futures prices to nine-week highs. Corn futures set an eight-week high after the USDA report also showed tighter-than-expected inventories of the yellow grain. Farmers welcomed the rallies after crop […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Hogs up on technical buying, demand hopes
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. hog futures touched a two-month high on Monday on technical buying and hopes for more export sales to China, brokers said. Traders are waiting for confirmation of Chinese buying as the Asian nation is struggling with an outbreak of African swine fever, a fatal pig disease that has decimated its […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soy futures end near unchanged
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures finished near unchanged on Thursday after initially rising on hopes for further Chinese purchases, traders said. China, the world’s largest soybean importer, will buy about six million tonnes of soy from the United States before trade talks in early October, said a chief analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence […] Read more

Japan deal levels field for U.S. beef, but sales surge unlikely
Tokyo/Chicago | Reuters — U.S. beef exporters, unhappy after President Donald Trump pulled out of a multilateral trade pact in 2017, stand to sell more meat in Japan after the U.S. leader and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut a deal to slice into tariffs. But agriculture experts say that for now, that boost may […] Read more