* CBOT November soybeans settled down 8 cents at $8.59-1/4 per bushel.

* The market pulled back after rising on Monday on short covering and hopes for easing tensions in the US-China trade war.

* CBOT December soymeal ended down $1.60 at $297 per short ton, and December soyoil slipped 34 cents to 28.35 cents per pound.

* The US Department of Agriculture, after the close of trading on Monday, increased its weekly good-to-excellent rating for the nation's soybean crop by 2 percentage points to 55%. That topped analysts' estimates for 54%.

* Ratings climbed by 10 percentage points to 50% good to excellent in Illinois and by 4 percentage points to 48% in Missouri.

* The improved condition fuels expectations that the crop may be getting bigger, said Don Roose, president of US Commodities.

* However, cool weather is not ideal for the crop after it was planted late due to heavy rains and floods this spring, traders said.

* Only 79% of US soybeans had set pods by Aug. 25, breaking the modern-era record for that date of 80%, set in 1996, according to the USDA.

* Regarding the trade war, China's foreign ministry reiterated on Tuesday that it had not heard of any recent telephone call between the United States and China on trade.