(Rewrites throughout; updates prices, adds quotes, changes byline, changes dateline from previous HAMBURG)
CHICAGO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures climbed on Monday as soyoil futures rose more than 2% on short-covering and strength in crude oil, traders said.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures firmed on bargain buying and a setback in the dollar, which tends to make U.S. grains more competitive globally, while corn inched higher in choppy trade.
As of 12:49 p.m. CST (1849 GMT), CBOT March soybeans were up 10-1/4 cents, or 0.8%, at $12.23-1/2 per bushel and March soyoil was up 1.10 cents, or 2.4%, at 48.00 cents per lb, rallying after a dip to 46.77 cents.
U.S. crude oil futures were up about $2 a barrel on geopolitical tensions, lending support to the soy complex due to soyoil's role as a feedstock for biofuel. Commodity funds hold a sizable
net short position
in CBOT soyoil futures, leaving the market prone to bouts of short-covering, noted Craig Turner, analyst with StoneX.
"We are hitting support levels in bean oil, and we have a big short. So I think it's short covering, and crude oil being up $2," Turner said.
Rallies in soybeans were capped as traders weighed the size of the soybean crop in Brazil, the world's top supplier, after rains eased concerns about drought damage there. Brazil's
soybean harvest
was 6% complete by Thursday, consultancy AgRural said.
China's
soybean imports
from Brazil in 2023 jumped 29% from the prior year, customs data showed on Saturday, expanding the South American grower's dominance in the world's largest soybean market and eating into the U.S. market share.
CBOT March wheat was up 3-3/4 cents at $5.97 a bushel and March corn was up 1/4 cent at $4.45-3/4 a bushel, consolidating after hitting a contract low last week at $4.36-3/4, the lowest on a continuous chart of the most-active corn contract in three years.
Global wheat export business was quiet on Monday after over 1.5 million metric tons was bought last week in international tenders with buyers including Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon with only Jordan tendering for wheat so far this week.
(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Chizu Nomiyama)
