Soybean futures fall then rise on conflicting trade comments

Soybean futures in Chicago fell nearly 10 c/bu and quickly rebounded in early trade Tuesday on conflicting comments from US officials on the US-China Phase One deal.

CBOT soybean futures fell more than 1% across the curve in a 45-minute period in early Asian trading hours with the front-month contract for July slipping from 8.77 c/bu to 8.67 c/bu following comments from White House trade advisor Peter Navarro that the China-US trade deal was "over."

In response to a Fox TV interviewer’s question asking whether the trade deal was over.

“It’s over,” said Navarro.

That spurred a swift denial from US President Donald Trump.

“The China Trade Deal is fully intact. Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the Agreement,” he said on Twitter late Monday, sending soybean futures back to where they were.

Navarro later clarified his comments were not about the phase one trade deal that includes soybean purchases.

China's decision on whether to purchase soybeans is politically-sensitive as many farmers are based in key states for Donald Trump ahead of this year's US election.

Last week, former White House official John Bolton said President Trump urged China's Xi Jinping to buy millions of tonnes of soybeans from US farmers to help him get re-elected - a claim Trump denied.