Wheat, Soybeans Advance

Wheat and soybean futures prices advanced but corn fell Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Soybeans recovered late in the session after an announcement that India would be in the market for soybean oil over the weekend. India usually buys in lots of 20,000 tons, “so that’s 20,000 tons that we didn’t anticipate,” said Richard Loewy, senior grain and oil seed analyst in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities Inc.

Soybean prices had fallen earlier in response to a report from the Census Bureau that domestic inventories of soybean oil were greater than expected. However, the stocks remained sharply lower than year-earlier levels.

Further supporting soybean prices were reports that rainfall in Brazil, where dry conditions are threatening to damage the soybean crop, failed to meet expectations.

Wheat prices were higher as available supplies currently are fairly tight, said Loewy.

He said a report that the Soviet Union canceled a purchase of 189,000 metric tons of U.S. corn put downward pressure on corn prices.