Soybeans edge higher, but poised for biggest weekly drop in a month

• Soybeans up after 3 days of falls
• Wheat down around 3% for the week
• Corn on course for 0.2% weekly loss

SYDNEY/PARIS: US soybean futures edged higher on Friday from a one-week low hit in the previous

session, but were on track to post their biggest weekly drop in a month amid expectations for ample supplies and tepid global demand.

Wheat was poised to mark a 3% weekly slide, while corn was little changed for the week.

The most-active soybean futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.2% to $8.39 a bushel at 1024 MT, after three straight sessions of falls.

They closed 0.3% lower on Thursday, when prices hit their lowest since May 7 at $8.35 a bushel, and were still down nearly 1.5% for the week.

"Soybeans are benefiting from the return of Chinese purchases, even if this remains well below the figures before the geopolitical and health crisis," French consultancy Agritel said.

But China has bought huge numbers of Brazilian beans, which raises questions about demand for US supplies, said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.

"When you couple this with expectations for bigger production in the United States, that leads to lower prices," he said.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Thursday private exporters sold 198,000 tonnes of US soybeans to China.

China is set to speed up purchases of US farm goods and will implement the Phase-1 trade deal with the United States, state-owned agriculture trading house COFCO said.

The most active corn futures were up 0.3% to 3.18-1/2 a bushel after closing 0.2% lower on Thursday and were now down only 0.2% for the week.

The USDA this week projected that US farmers would grow a record-large corn crop this year approaching 16 billion bushels, potentially building domestic stockpiles of the feed grain to their highest levels in 33 years.

But some analysts question whether farmers will plant the full 97 million acres of corn that the USDA forecast, given a steep slide in cash and futures prices since March.

Private analytics firm IEG Vantage pegged US corn seedings at 94.2 million acres.

The most active wheat futures were up 0.75% at $5.06 a bushel after closing little changed on Thursday. Wheat was down 3% for the week.

The decline comes as beneficial rains this month have put Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, all major Black Sea producers, back on track for large new-crop wheat exports after a dry April, analysts said.