US soybean prices hit a 15-month high amid hopes for a trade deal with China

markets closed below their session highs due to pressure from profit-taking and farmer selling as producers locked in prices. Soybean export prospects remained a focus of grain markets. Trump said on Monday that the US and China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, are ready to reach a trade agreement, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC on Sunday that China would make “substantial” soybean purchases under the proposed framework. “It’s all about the optimism that permeated Thursday’s meeting, with hopes that, quote, ‘significant’ soybean purchases would be announced,” said Hightower Report analyst Randy Place, adding that the rise in soybean prices had attracted technical buying. Given expectations, Place said, futures could decline without any purchase commitments. “There’s a risk we could slide back,” he said. According to the MARS crop monitoring service, winter crop planting was proceeding well across much of the European Union on Monday, although some parts of ...