Grains Rise as Trump-Xi Summit Lifts Hopes — Daily Grain Highlights

By Anthony Harrup

--Corn for December delivery rose 2.9%, to $5.43 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday, supported by strong export inspections, continued Russia-Ukraine fighting and rain in harvest areas.

--Soybeans for November delivery rose 1.9%, to $13.28 a bushel.

--Wheat for December delivery rose 1.8%, to $7.26 3/4 a bushel.

Summit Hopes: Grains started the week broadly higher as the market holds hopes that the planned meeting between President Trump and China's Xi Jinping will include Chinese commitments to buy more U.S. agricultural products. "U.S. grains should benefit from this week's meeting as U.S. President Trump looks for a diplomatic win ahead of the midterms," AgResource said in a note. "There is also high hope that China will drop its 10% tariff on U.S. soybeans and grain."

Export Inspections: Corn inspections for the week ended Sept. 17 totaled 1.94 million metric tons, up from 1.55 million tons the week before and 1.39 million tons from the same week a year ago, the USDA said Monday. Soybean inspections were 759,193 tons, compared with 680,252 tons the previous week and 565,630 tons a year earlier. Wheat inspections fell to 335,253 tons from 472,980 tons the week before, and were down from 939,803 tons in the same week of 2025.

Mexico was the top buyer of wheat, Japan the main destination for corn and China the biggest buyer of soybeans.

INSIGHT

Bullish Trio: Corn futures found support in wet weekend weather that likely slowed harvesting, continued Russia-Ukraine fighting, and the USDA report showing solid export inspections for last week. There were big rains over the weekend, although it "looks like things have a chance to dry out this week, then harvest can get going," Naomi Blohm of Total Farm Marketing said in a note.

Not to Worry: Marketing year-to-date wheat export inspections last week were off 31% from this time last year, according to the USDA's latest report Monday. Despite the slow start to the 2026/27 marketing year, "it's still too early for concern given the ongoing effective closure of the Black Sea and potential for mounting quality issues on the Canadian Prairies, especially with the size of this year's U.S. crop also playing a role," Mike Castle of StoneX said in a note. Buyers are diversifying sources for wheat imports because of disruptions to Russian and Ukrainian shipments, "but the ultimate question is whether this shift in trade flows ends up driving more demand for U.S. wheat," he added.

AHEAD

--General Mills will release its first-quarter 2027 earnings report at 7 a.m. ET Wednesday.

--The EIA will release its Weekly Petroleum Status Update report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

--The USDA will release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

--The USDA will release its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 21, 2026 15:01 ET (19:01 GMT)