Vegetable Oil Prices Mixed, but May Head Lower

World vegetable oil markets were mixed on Wednesday as both soybean oil and palm oil traders largely ignored the movement in the energy market. Crude oil remained under pressure for most of the overnight session and during U.S. trading hours and was down about two percent at the close of U.S. agricultural trading.

Soybean oil futures fell more than 1 1/4 percent (July contract -35 basis points per pound) as broad selling across agricultural futures and weakness in soybean prices triggered selling. Fund oil share spreading also weighed on prices. The decline left the most actively traded July contract back below the psychologically important 26-cent level, which erased most of the gains made last week.

Palm oil futures gained almost two percent (July contract…