USDA left the domestic soybean balance sheet practically unchanged in this week’s crop report, perhaps due to uncertainty over U.S.-China trade relations. After the G20 meeting, the U.S. and Chinese presidents were eager to signal that the trade war could be resolved. Both agreed on a 90-day halt to new tariffs originally scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, making the end of March the next deadline for any resolution.

Adding to tensions is the arrest of the CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei. The executive, the daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested in Canada and as of this writing is awaiting extradition hearings regarding U.S. charges of fraud related to trade sanctions.

U.S. 2018/19 soybean exports remain extremely slow, currently 83 percent below exports last year. A resolution to the trade dispute could not be resolved for months, too late for this season’s U.S. soybeans as Brazil will have its own new-crop soybeans available for export by then.

U.S. soybean exports

Source: USDA
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