Reading Time: 3 minutes Beijing/Washington | Reuters — The United States and China cooled their trade war on Friday, announcing a “phase one” agreement that reduces some U.S. tariffs in exchange for increased Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods. Chinese officials offered no specific details on the amount of U.S. agricultural goods Beijing had agreed to buy, a key […] Read more
Chinese officials, Trump agree to tariff rollbacks
U.S. livestock: Hogs firm on fresh hopes for China trade pact
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures closed higher on Thursday on rekindled hopes for a U.S. trade deal with China, the world’s top pork consumer, traders said. Recent strength in cash hog markets added support, although prices in the closely watched Iowa and southern Minnesota market fell on Thursday afternoon after rising in […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, wheat, soy rally on China trade hopes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn, wheat and soybean futures rose on Thursday on fresh export demand and renewed hopes for a trade agreement with China after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that a deal with Beijing was “very close,” analysts said. Chicago Board of Trade March corn futures settled up 6-1/2 cents at $3.77-3/4 […] Read more
U.S. grains: Profit-taking pressures soybeans
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell on Wednesday as investors took profits after six days in a row of price increases, while wheat and corn sank on technical selling. Traders shrugged off news of the largest soybean sale to China in more than eight months, in the absence of fresh signs of a […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Cattle futures rise on technical buying
Reading Time: < 1 minute Chicago | Reuters — U.S. cattle futures rose on Wednesday, rebounding from Tuesday’s downturn, while hog futures eased. Traders said that signs of strength in the cash market added support to the strength in both live and feeder cattle contracts. Technical buyers also helped pushed prices higher after early signs of strength. Chicago Mercantile Exchange […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Firmer cash prices support CME hog futures
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. hog futures rose on Tuesday with support from stronger cash prices, while live cattle futures eased in a setback from recent advances. Gains in hog futures and cash prices reflect solid domestic demand for pork and signal that pig supplies are expected to tighten heading into the new year, said […] Read more
Strong foreign demand boosts North American hog markets
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — While the volume of hogs at North American slaughter markets have kept packing plants near capacity in recent weeks, strong foreign export demand has kept pork values high. “We expect pork values to move higher, due to the shortness of production in China,” said Brad Marceniuk, a Saskatchewan provincial livestock economist in Saskatoon. […] Read more
CBOT weekly outlook: WASDE yields mixed results
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — World agriculture supply and demand estimates (WASDE) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have turned out largely bullish for wheat values, bearish for corn and neutral for soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). The report, released Tuesday, lowered U.S. wheat stocks by 40 million bushels to total 947 million tonnes, […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soy, corn firm on trade deal hopes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures firmed on Tuesday, rising for a sixth consecutive session on hopes that the United States and China will continue to progress toward an interim trade deal. Corn futures also edged higher on an improved trade outlook as Canada, Mexico and the United States approved changes to a preliminary […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soybean futures set two-week high
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures rose for a fifth straight session to their highest in two weeks as Chinese importers on Monday bought at least five bulk cargo shipments of the oilseed from the United States, or about 300,000 tonnes, traders said. A rally to four-week highs in soyoil futures helped support the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
