Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures fell on Monday, with traders hedging their positions in case the Trump administration implements tariffs on goods from major U.S. trading partners, according to analysts.
CBOT’s most-active soybeans Sv1 fell 10-3/4 cents to $10.45 a bushel.
CBOT corn Cv1 fell 4-1/2 cents to $4.82, having hit one-year highs the previous week. And wheat futures Wv1 followed corn lower, falling 8-1/2 cents to $5.35-1/2 a bushel.
Following President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week, market participants were relieved that the president did not immediately impose tariffs on imports from countries such as China and Mexico, said Angie Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.
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There were good gains for the Chicago soy complex during the week ended Feb. 4, due to positive news that Wednesday.
But, she said, fears that his proposed tariffs could spark new trade wars were revived this week. Concerns were focused on Trump’s threats of 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada starting Saturday.
Still, some traders were optimistic that would not happen after Trump backed off tariff threats against Colombia when the country reached a deal with the United States on migrant repatriation flights over the weekend.
The coming Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Wednesday, also weighed on grain and oilseed markets, as the world’s largest soybean exporter is likely to slow its buying over the holiday period, analysts said.
More pressure was exerted by outside markets on Monday, Setzer said, as the entrance of DeepSeek, a new low-cost Chinese AI model, sent the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq tumbling.
Soybeans faced additional headwinds from the temporary reduction in export taxes on crops including soybeans in Argentina, a top producer of the oilseed, which will be lowered through June.
Wheat also fell on limited demand, Setzer said, but its decline was limited by fears cold weather may have killed as much as 15 per cent of the winter wheat crop in U.S grain belts.
—Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
