Soybean prices jump after China agrees to buy ‘substantial’ US agricultural products in trade truce

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Farmer Bruce Elder, 56, a farmer for 40 years, fills a seeding container with soybean seeds in Gideon, Missouri. 

Soybean prices surged Monday on the back of a trade truce between the U.S. and China in which the Chinese agreed to buy more American agricultural products.

The January futures contract on soybeans rose 1.9 percent to $912 per 5,000 bushels at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to hold off on slapping additional tariffs on each other’s goods in January, giving both countries more time to resolve their ongoing trade war. China and the U.S. agreed the ceasefire would last 90 days starting in January.

As part of the agreement — which was reached over dinner at the G-20 summit in Argentina this weekend — “China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries. China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately,” the White House said in a statement.

The trade war between the world’s biggest economies has taken its toll on soybean prices. Earlier this year, China implemented a 25 percent tariff on soybeans coming from the U.S. The tariff has sent the soybean futures down more than 10 percent over the past six months.

Trump tweeted on Monday this agreement will be very beneficiary for U.S. farmers.

Tweet

“I’m particularly happy for the American farmer of soybeans as they’ve been a sacrificial lamb in this spat but the 25% tariff on soybean imports into China still remains for now,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group , wrote in a note Monday.

Shares of Deere & Co. jumped more than 3 percent in premarket trading Monday.