US soyabean futures rose on Monday on hopes that Washington and Beijing will dial down tensions over trade, while corn and wheat futures eased. Traders grew hopeful again that China and the United States could move toward a trade agreement as US President Donald Trump said he was confident that Beijing was sincere about wanting a deal. China's lead negotiator in the trade talks said Beijing was willing to resolve the trade war with the United States through "calm negotiations" and resolutely opposed the escalation of the conflict.

The trade war between the world's two largest economies heated up on Friday as both sides levelled more tariffs on each other's exports. China, the world's biggest soyabean importer, slapped 25% tariffs on a list of US products including soyabeans in July 2018 in response to duties Washington had levied on Chinese goods, bringing US soyabean shipments to a virtual halt. But China's soyabean imports in July rose three-fold from a year earlier, after the arrival of cargoes booked by Chinese state firms during a bilateral truce in December.

The most actively traded soyabean futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 1.1% at $8.66-1/4 a bushel as of 11:30 am CDT (1630 GMT). Earlier in the session, they hit $8.55 a bushel, matching Friday's three-week low. Most-active corn futures were down 0.1% at $3.64-1/4 a bushel. The most-active wheat futures were 0.7% lower at $4.74-1/4 a bushel.

Large global supplies hung over the grain markets, traders said. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to rate 57% of the US corn crop in good to excellent condition in a weekly crop progress report on Monday, up from 56% the previous week, according to a Reuters poll.

Copyright Reuters, 2019