At 9:54 a.m. EDT, Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) July soybeans are 4 cents higher at $13.90 a bushel. The new crop CBOT November contract is trading up 6 cents at $13.14 3/4 a bushel.

Tepid activity in macro markets ahead of this weekend's elections in Greece and traders eyeing rains moving into the central Midwest promoted a nervous atmosphere in the market, said Jason Britt, president of brokerage Central States Commodities.

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Investors are mindful of bullish fundamentals for soybeans, with tightening global soybean inventories and strong demand leaving little room for production shortfalls in the U.S.

"We need every bushel of soybeans and every double crop acre to meet demand, particularly after South America's crops were compromised by drought this year," Mr. Britt said.

Traders are focusing on a rain system moving into the Midwest, waiting to see if the wet weather provides relief for crops stressed by dryness in recent weeks.

Scattered showers will be fairly common across some of the drier portions of the lower and eastern Midwest during the weekend, said Drew Lerner, president of World Weather Inc.

Yet, the precipitation will be generally light and won't remove most of the moisture deficits many areas are suffering from, Mr. Lerner said. The rains will provide a little buffer ahead of heat that redevelops in the Midwest by midweek that will remove most of the beneficial moisture from weekend rains, Mr. Lerner added.

Investors are also adding value to soybean prices, acknowledging that current price levels aren't slowing demand for U.S. supplies already projected to dwindle to precariously low levels by August 2013.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported system sales of 120,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans to unknown destinations for delivery in the 2011-12 marketing year, and 262,000 metric tons of soybeans to China for 2012-13 delivery. USDA also reported the cancellation of 147,000 metric tons of soybeans to China for 2011-12 delivery.

A strong export pace raises concern that government forecasters may need to increase their current projections on exports for the year and tighten their supply estimates.

Meanwhile, investors are still keeping an eye on developments in the euro-zone debt crisis, with some traders unwilling to take on added risk.

Otherwise, traders are awaiting the expected release of 2012 acreage forecasts from private analytical firm Informa Economics. Traders say the firm will release updated projections at 11:30 a.m. EDT.

Write to Andrew Johnson Jr. at andrew.johnsonjr@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2012 10:24 ET (14:24 GMT)
DJ US SOY: Higher As Weather, Global Economic Uncertainty Provide Stability->copyright