FUNDAMENTALS

* The most active soybean futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.6% at $8.61-1/2 a bushel, as of 0225 GMT.

Earlier in the session, they hit $8.55 a bushel, their lowest since Aug 5. Soybeans closed down 1.4% on Friday.

* The most active corn futures were up 0.3% at $3.69 a bushel, having closed 0.9% weaker in the previous session.

* The most active wheat futures were down 0.2% at $4.77 a bushel, having closed up 0.2% on Friday.

* Grain market under pressure after China announced retaliatory tariffs on about $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, including agricultural products.

* However, the impact on grains was seen as largely psychological, given that China already said this month it halted purchases of U.S. agricultural products.

* Pro Farmer newsletter projected the U.S. 2019 corn yield at 163.3 bushels per acre and the U.S. soybean yield at 46.1 bushels per acre, both below the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent forecasts.

MARKET NEWS

* The yen surged on Monday as investors flocked to safe-haven assets after a sharp re-escalation in the U.S.-China trade war, which whacked investor confidence and darkened the global economic outlook.

* Oil prices dropped on Monday, pushing U.S. crude to its lowest in more than two weeks, as a ratcheting up of tensions in the U.S.-China war knocked confidence in the global economy.

* U.S. stock index futures dropped when electronic trading resumed on Sunday, with trade relations between the United States and China appearing to reach a fresh low on Friday, sending Wall Street into a selling frenzy.