CHICAGO: US soyabeans futures firmed on Friday, amid news of another Chinese purchase of US oilseeds, and renewed hopes of progress in talks to resolve the trade war that has dramatically cut US soyabean exports to China.

Wheat futures were stubbornly rangebound, amid a weakening dollar. And corn prices stuttered, as the market remains underpinned by a slow US harvest pace and a winter storm this week that brought snow to the central Plains and western Midwest.

“Between the harvest and selling pressures in the grains over the past few weeks, the market is struggling to find the food to feed the bull right now,” said Ted Seifried, chief ag market strategist at the Zaner Group.

Chicago Board of Trade’s most active corn contract was down 0.71% at $3.87-1/4 a bushel at 10:31 a.m. CDT (1531 GMT), having also fallen on Thursday amid drier US harvest weather was forecast in the next few days.

Soyabeans rose 0.35% to $9.35-1/2 a bushel and wheat rose 0.2% to $5.09-3/4 a bushel.

Traders said the Chicago Board of Trade’s November soyabean futures contract drew support from delivery data showing that a commercial customer of JPMorgan, which traders believe to be Cargill, received or “stopped” 1,426 deliveries against the November contract, which expires this month.

In another positive sign for soya, private exporters reported the sale of 132,000 tonnes of US soyabeans to China on Friday morning, the latest in a string of purchases the top buyer of the oilseed has booked amid talks to end a bilateral trade war that has lasted more than a year.—Reuters