LONDON: 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 US 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.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was up 0.7 percent at $8.71 a bushel at 1035 GMT, after falling as low as $8.60 on Thursday.
The market was on track for a weekly loss of 3.3 percent.
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.
"A US-China trade deal looks further away than ever today," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"The macro implication is slower global growth. And commodity prices, or at least those without some gravity-defying supply deficit, fell sharply."
Brazil's soybean exports fell in July due to weaker demand from the world's largest importer, China, but corn exports from the South American country hit a monthly high in July, government data showed on Thursday.
Soybean exports from the world's largest supplier fell by 23% to 7.82 million tonnes last month, the data showed.
CBOT's most active corn contract rose 0.7 percent to $4.05-1/4 a bushel, rebounding from a 10-week low of $3.97-1/4 set on Thursday.
Dealers noted continued concerns about the US crop despite improving weather and soil conditions.
"The likelihood of yields disappointing compared with last year remains high given the unprecedented immaturity of the crop at this stage." Fitch Solutions analyst Peter Hoflich said.
"As early heat in August and frost in September is a big concern for late-planted corn, near term weather will be critical for determining where prices move next over the coming weeks," he added.
CBOT's most active wheat contract was up 0.8 percent at $4.79-3/4 a bushel after setting a 10-week low of $4.71-3/4 on Thursday.
December milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext rose 0.1 percent to 178.50 euros a tonne.
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