Chicago | Reuters—U.S. corn and wheat futures fell on Friday on month-end positioning while soybeans traded nearly flat and soybean oil jumped more than two per cent in volatile trade amid ongoing uncertainty around U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs.
Chicago Board of Trade benchmark corn futures CH25 settled down 8-1/4 cents at $4.82 per bushel and wheat Wv1 ended down 7 cents at $5.59-1/2 a bushel.
The most-active CBOT soybean contract Sv1 fell down 2 cents to end at $10.42 a bushel while soyoil BOv1 settled up 1.13 cents or about 2.5 per cent to 46.11 cents per pound, after gyrating in a wide trading range.
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Corn and soybeans futures were pressured and soyoil futures briefly turned lower on news that tariffs were expected to be implemented on Canada and Mexico by the Trump administration on March 1.
But CBOT soyoil futures surged back after the White House said that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, along with 10 per cent on China, on Saturday.
“Trading grains over the next four years will turn more grey hair bleach white, with the headline stress,” said Terry Reilly, senior agricultural strategist with Marex.
Analysts have said that the tariffs Trump has threatened could spark retaliation from impacted countries and trade wars, hurting the markets for U.S. agricultural exports.
Trump has said that the tariffs would take effect if Canada and Mexico do not stem the flow of illegal migrants and the drug fentanyl into the United States.
Ahead of Friday’s tariff developments, soybean futures had been firming along with soyoil, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting, with Canada’s canola oil RSc1 under threat of tariffs.
Uncertainty about tariffs shifted attention away from the weather in South America, which has given corn and soybean futures support in recent days, as dryness plagued Argentina and rains slowed the harvest in Brazil.
—Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
