Soybean heads for 3% weekly gain on US demand hopes
However, plentiful supply from South America and projections of a large U.S. harvest capped further gains. Corn futures also rose and were set to end the week up nearly 4% due to a wave of bargain-hunting and short-covering, though supply remains ample. Wheat climbed but was headed for a weekly loss of about 0.5% amid seasonal pressure from ongoing northern hemisphere harvests.
The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 1.3% at $10.39-3/4 a bushel by 1119 GMT. A weaker dollar helped propel gains by making U.S. farm goods cheaper for overseas buyers. U.S. policies restricting the range of non-soy feedstocks that can be used to make biodiesel lifted soyoil, but beans will struggle to sustain a rally, said Tobin Gorey, founder of commodities consultancy Cornucopia. "Soybean supply is neutral," he said. "There's not a lot of traction for prices."
U.S. soybean export sales in the week ended July 10 reached 529,600 metric tons for 2025-26 shipment, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said, beating analysts' expectations. The USDA also this week reported a sale of 120,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to "unknown destinations", triggering speculation that China might be the buyer and could buy again. A trade deal between the United States and Indonesia could boost U.S. soy exports. However, oilseed lobby group Abiove raised its forecast for Brazil's 2024/25 soybean exports and the Rosario Grains Exchange lifted its estimate for Argentina's 2024/25 harvest.
In other crops, CBOT corn was up 1.5% at $4.27-3/4 a bushel and wheat was 1.7% higher at $5.42-3/4 a bushel. Prices at 1119 GMT Last Change Pct Move CBOT wheat 542.75 9.25 1.73 CBOT corn 427.25 6.25 1.48 CBOT soy 1039.75 13.25 1.29 Paris wheat 201.00 1.50 0.75 Paris maize 208.00 2.50 1.22 Paris rapeseed 476.50 -2.25 -0.47 Euro/dlr 1.16 0.00 0.42 Most active contracts - Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel, Paris futures in euros per tonne
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Tesla ordered to pay $243 million in lawsuit over 2019 Autopilot crash
Tesla was ordered to pay $243 million in a lawsuit over the fatal 2019 Autopilot-equipped Model S crash, marking the first major court loss for Elon Musk's electric vehicle company concerning its driver-assistance technology. A jury in Miami federal court in Florida on Friday found that Tesla was responsible for about a third of the accident in the state that killed one pedestrian and seriously injured another when the Tesla Model S drove through a T-intersection and hit a parked car at 80.5kph. The jury assigned the remaining two-thirds to the driver, who was reaching for his mobile phone at the time of the crash. 'Today's verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardise Tesla's and the entire industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology. We plan to appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial,' Tesla said in a statement. Brett Schreiber, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said after the verdict: 'Tesla designed Autopilot only for controlled-access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere, alongside Elon Musk telling the world Autopilot drove better than humans.' Mr Musk, the world's richest person, is Tesla's chief executive and majority Tesla shares fell 1.8 per cent at the market close on Friday, and are down 25 per cent this year. In the second quarter of 2025, Tesla said in its safety report that it recorded one crash for every 6.69 million miles driven in which drivers were using its Autopilot technology. For drivers who were not using Autopilot, it recorded one crash for every 963,000 miles driven. By comparison, the most recent data available from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway Administration (from 2023) shows that in the US there was an car crash approximately every 702,000 miles. Tesla markets its automated driving systems under two brand names – Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. All new Tesla cars come with the Autopilot driver-assist feature as a standard option and the company sells the more advanced Full Self-Driving at a premium for an additional $10,000. Autopilot allows the car to steer, accelerate and brake automatically for other vehicles and pedestrians. Full Self-Driving offers more enhanced features such as auto-parking and automatic lane changes while driving on the motorway.
Gulf Business
4 hours ago
- Gulf Business
Trump expands tariffs: See the full list of targeted countries
Image: Getty Images In a sweeping executive order, US President Donald Trump has expanded tariffs on imports from multiple trading partners, citing persistent trade deficits and national security concerns. The move follows Executive Order 14257, signed in April 2025, and is framed as part of a broader strategy to restore fair trade and strengthen the US economy. The new order, grounded in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and other federal statutes, imposes additional ad valorem duties on imports from countries that Trump's administration says have failed to provide reciprocal trade access or align with U.S. economic and security priorities. 'I have received additional information… on the impact of foreign trading partners' disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers on US exports, the domestic manufacturing base, critical supply chains, and the defense industrial base,' Trump said in the executive order. Read: Some countries have signaled willingness to cooperate and are in the process of finalising trade and security agreements with the United States. In these cases, their goods will remain subject to additional tariffs until formal agreements are concluded. Others, however, have either failed to reach a deal or not engaged in meaningful negotiations—making them subject to new duties. For example, European Union goods with current tariff rates below 15 per cent will now face a combined duty of at least 15 per cent, while those with existing rates above 15% will not face additional charges. All countries not specifically listed in the annex will face a flat 10 per cent duty increase. Additional penalties—including a 40 per cent tariff—will apply to goods found to have been transshipped to evade these duties. The order also outlines enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, directing US agencies to update and revise the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and track potential circumvention schemes. The White House described the action as essential to maintaining the United States' economic and national security, particularly in light of ongoing global supply chain disruptions and shifting geopolitical alliances. Here's the full list of countries impacted under the new tariff order: Countries and Territories Reciprocal Tariff, Adjusted Afghanistan 15% Algeria 30% Angola 15% Bangladesh 20% Bolivia 15% Bosnia and Herzegovina 30% Botswana 15% Brazil 10% Brunei 25% Cambodia 19% Cameroon 15% Chad 15% Costa Rica 15% Côte d`Ivoire 15% Democratic Republic of the Congo 15% Ecuador 15% Equatorial Guinea 15% European Union: Goods with Column 1 Duty Rate 0% European Union: Goods with Column 1 Duty Rate < 15% 15% minus Column 1 Duty Rate Falkland Islands 10% Fiji 15% Ghana 15% Guyana 15% Iceland 15% India 25% Indonesia 19% Iraq 35% Israel 15% Japan 15% Jordan 15% Kazakhstan 25% Laos 40% Lesotho 15% Libya 30% Liechtenstein 15% Madagascar 15% Malawi 15% Malaysia 19% Mauritius 15% Moldova 25% Mozambique 15% Myanmar (Burma) 40% Namibia 15% Nauru 15% New Zealand 15% Nicaragua 18% Nigeria 15% North Macedonia 15% Norway 15% Pakistan 19% Papua New Guinea 15% Philippines 19% Serbia 35% South Africa 30% South Korea 15% Sri Lanka 20% Switzerland 39% Syria 41% Taiwan 20% Thailand 19% Trinidad and Tobago 15% Tunisia 25% Turkey 15% Uganda 15% United Kingdom 10% Vanuatu 15% Venezuela 15% Vietnam 20% Zambia 15% Zimbabwe 15% [1] For purposes of this Executive Order and its Annexes, 'Column 1 Duty Rate' means the ad valorem (or ad valorem equivalent) rate of duty under column 1-General of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Source: White House
Khaleej Times
7 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
US President Trump orders firing of labour official over 'rigged' jobs data
President Donald Trump said Friday (August 1) he has ordered the firing of a key economic official, accusing her of manipulating employment data for political reasons after a new report showed cracks in the US jobs market. US job growth missed expectations in July, Labor Department data showed, and revisions to hiring figures in recent months brought them to the weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. Without providing evidence, Trump lashed out at the department's commissioner of labor statistics, writing on social media that the jobs numbers "were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad." In a separate post on his Truth Social platform, he charged that Commissioner Erika McEntarfer had "faked" jobs data to boost Democrats' chances of victory in the recent presidential election. "McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months," Trump said, referring to latest data for July. "Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative," Trump said, insisting that the world's biggest economy was "booming" under his leadership. He later told reporters "we need people that we can trust," accusing the economic official of inflating hiring figures under former president Joe Biden's administration. 'Dangerous precedent' The US added 73,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent from 4.1 per cent, said the Department of Labour earlier Friday. Hiring numbers for May were revised down from 144,000 to 19,000. The figure for June was shifted from 147,000 to 14,000. This was notably lower than job creation levels in recent years. During the pandemic, the economy lost jobs. The employment data points to challenges in the key labor market as companies took a cautious approach in hiring and investment while grappling with Trump's sweeping — and rapidly changing — tariffs this year. The numbers also pile pressure on the central bank as it mulls the best time to cut interest rates. With tariff levels climbing since the start of the year, both on imports from various countries and on sector-specific products such as steel, aluminum and autos, many firms have faced higher business costs. Some are now passing them along to consumers. William Beach, who previously held McEntarfer post at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, warned that her firing "sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau." The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) condemned her dismissal, saying large revisions in jobs numbers "reflect not manipulation, but rather the dwindling resources afforded to statistical agencies." "Firing the head of a key government agency because you don't like the numbers they report, which come from surveys using long established procedures, is what happens in authoritarian countries, not democratic ones," slammed Larry Summers, former US Treasury secretary under Democratic president Bill Clinton. 'Gamechanger' Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, said Friday's jobs report was a "gamechanger." "The labor market is deteriorating quickly," said Long, noting that of the growth in July, "75 per cent of those jobs were in one sector: health care." "The economy needs certainty soon on tariffs," Long said. "The longer this tariff whiplash lasts, the more likely this weak hiring environment turns into layoffs." It remains unclear when the dust will settle, with Trump ordering the reimposition of steeper tariffs on scores of economies late Thursday, which are set to take effect in a week. A sharp weakening in the labor market could push the Federal Reserve toward slashing interest rates sooner to shore up the economy. On Friday, the two Fed officials who voted this week against the central bank's decision to keep rates unchanged warned that standing pat risks further damaging the economy. Both Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller argued that the inflationary effects of tariffs were temporary. They added in separate statements that the bank should focus on fortifying the economy to avert further weakening in the labor market. Putting off an interest rate cut "could result in a deterioration in the labor market and a further slowing in economic growth," Bowman said.
