CHICAGO- Chicago Board of Trade grain and soybean futures turned higher on Friday as market participants and fund traders scrambled to cover their hefty short positions on signs of the US economy weakening, market analysts said.

But corn and soybean prices still hovered near four-year lows on large global supplies and as forecasts for cool, rainy weather in the US corn belt improved the crop outlook.

The most-active CBOT soybean contract settled up 10-3/4 cents at $10.27-1/4 per bushel, while CBOT corn ended up 4-3/4 cents at $4.03-1/4 per bushel. Both ended the week lower.

CBOT wheat settled the day up 7 cents at $5.39 per bushel, and ended the week up 2.96 percent , as traders weighed the production impact of adverse weather in Europe and China.

That in turn sent investors racing for safe havens, fueling a sell-off in global equities, a sharp drop in the US dollar and US Treasury yields fell to multi-month lows. The VIX stock market volatility measure dubbed Wall Street’s fear gauge, surged.

The ripple effects also rolled across US agricultural markets, where cattle futures plunged on signs of algorithmic trading and grain and oilseed futures rallied, analysts said. – Reuters