Chicago soybeans edge up but remain on track for weekly loss

CHICAGO: Chicago soybean futures edged away from the prior session's seven-week low on Friday but remained on track for a weekly loss as an escalation in a year-long trade dispute between the United States and China weighed on the market.

Corn and wheat prices were also slightly higher, boosted by bargain buying after also setting multi-week lows on Thursday.

Analysts said technical buying helped the futures markets bounce back from Thursday's losses.

"The market is just looking for some middle ground before the US Department of Agriculture releases its updated crop report," said Bill Gentry, managing director, agriculture consulting, for Risk Management Commodities, referring to the report expected on Aug. 12.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was up 2-3/4 cents, or 0.3% at $8.67-3/4 a bushel at 11:20 a.m. CDT (1620 GMT), after falling as low as $8.60 on Thursday.

Soybeans tumbled on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he would impose an additional 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1, citing insufficient progress in trade talks between the world's two largest economies.

China is the world's largest soybean importer and imposed retaliatory tariffs on US soybeans more than a year ago.

"The situation is dire," said Gentry. "China tends to have the upper hand when it comes to trade situations."

The weather forecast for the US Midwest has cooler-than-usual temperatures for the weekend, but it still may be insufficient to help the late-planted crops recently hurt by hot weather.

"We don't have enough calendar days left for this crop to mature," said Gentry. "It's not hard to find crops that are in bad shape."

CBOT's most active corn contract was up 3-3/4 cents, or 0.9% at $4.06-1/4 a bushel, rebounding from a 10-week low of $3.97-1/4 set on Thursday.

CBOT's most active wheat contract was up 7-3/4 cents or 1.6% at $4.83-1/2 a bushel after setting a 10-week low of $4.71-3/4 on Thursday.