Dollar-driven rally in corn, wheat and soybean pauses

Chicago wheat, corn and soybean futures gave back some ground on Monday after a fast-weakening dollar triggered rapid gains last week by making U.S. farm goods more competitive on the global market. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have hammered the dollar index, which fell on Friday to its lowest since April 2022, and hovered near those lows on Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also last week tightened its outlooks for U.S. supply of corn and to a lesser extent soybeans, helping support prices. Speculators were net buyers of all three crops. Despite China’s soybean imports tumbling in March to their lowest for the month since 2008, traders hope negotiations can prevent the closing off of U.S. export markets following Trump’s decision last week to pause many of his tariff increases. Thailand on Friday said it would cut tariffs on imports of U.S. corn but that volumes still needed to be finalised. The USDA raised its U.S. corn export forecast last ...