Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures were higher by Tuesday's midsession on a mild technical short covering bounce after the steep price slide on Monday, traders said.
Strength in the soyaoil pit amid strong commercial buying helped lift soyabeans.
"There's some rumblings that China is looking for oil ... could be South American or US," said one floor broker.
November soya was up 3 cents at $5.74-1/2 per bushel and January was 2-3/4 higher at $5.85-3/4 by 11 am CST (1700 GMT).
December soyaoil was up 0.16 cent per lb at 22.83 cents, with deferreds up 0.16 to down 0.04. Commercial Bunge bought 600 December soyaoil, traders said. In soyabeans, Calyon and Citigroup were noted buyers of January.
Both markets were due for a bounce after Monday's sell-off. Soyameal was the weakest of the complex, pressured by ongoing concerns that global feed consumption will be cut due to the spread of bird flu. In overnight news, Chinese buyers cancelled at least four contracts to import Indian soyameal on growing fears that bird flu could sharply cut commercial feed demand, Singapore traders said.
CBOT December soyameal was down 40 cents per ton at $173.70, with the deferreds down 20 cents to up 70 cents.
Firms were evening positions before Thursday's USDA November crop report, which was likely to show a bigger US soya estimate and 2005/06 ending stocks.
An average of analysts' estimates for the 2005 US soyabean crop was 3.024 billion bushels, above the government's October forecast 2.967 billion. The average of US 2005/06 soya end stocks was at 317 million bushels, compared with 260 million estimated last month by the government.
There were large November deliveries on Tuesday, totalling 335 contracts. A First Options customer posted 130 lots and the key stopper was an R.J. O'Brien customer taking 111 lots. Registrations with the CBOT were unchanged at 1,790 lots.