Impacted by the possible delay of a China-US leaders' meeting, Chicago soybean futures prices fell over 2% on the 16th, dropping below $12 (47.22 ringgit) per bushel.
In an interview with the UK’s Financial Times, US President Trump said that if China does not help restore shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, he may postpone the summit originally scheduled for the end of this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
According to Bloomberg, since China is a major buyer of US agricultural products, soybean prices are particularly sensitive to tensions between the two countries.
The China-US leaders' meeting at the end of last October in South Korea broke a months-long trade stalemate between the two nations, prompting a wave of US soybean purchases by China. After reaching the initial target of 12 million tons, China’s pace of US soybean purchases slowed again. If the upcoming leaders' meeting is postponed, it could hinder the recovery of US soybean sales.
The most actively traded soybean futures price once fell by 2.7%, marking the largest intraday drop since early November last year, while soymeal and soyoil prices also fell by more than 1% each.