As of 1:02 p.m. CDT (1802 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade November soyabeans were up 26 cents at $8.92-1/2 per bushel after reaching $8.93, the contract's highest since Aug. 14. CBOT December corn was up 6 cents at $3.66 a bushel and December wheat was up 7-1/4 cents at $4.84-3/4 a bushel.
Chinese importers bought at least 10 cargoes of US soyabeans on Thursday, or about 600,000 tonnes, for shipment from Pacific Northwest export terminals from October to December, two traders with direct knowledge of the deals said. The deals, China's first US soyabean purchases in a month and the largest since at least June, come ahead of US-China trade talks set for early October in Washington. Lower-level US and Chinese officials are expected to meet within days.
Beijing earlier on Thursday said Chinese companies have started to inquire about prices for US agricultural goods purchases, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures surged their daily limit. The US-China trade developments overshadowed the USDA's monthly crop production report for September.
In it, the USDA lowered its US 2019/20 corn yield estimate to 168.2 bushels per acre (bpa), down from 169.5 in August but above the average estimate in a Reuters analyst poll of 167.2 bpa. Similarly, the USDA trimmed its US soyabean yield estimate to 47.9 bpa, down from 48.5 in August but above the average Reuters poll estimate of 47.2 bpa. The USDA cut its US corn production estimate to 13.799 billion bushels and pared its soyabean production estimate to 3.633 billion bushels.