Palm Oil Futures Rally on Indonesian Biodiesel Plan

Vegetable oil prices continued to bounce on Thursday despite weakness in crude oil triggered, in part, by ugly macroeconomic data that drove selling in commodities in early U.S. trading. Strength in palm oil helped support soybean oil futures in the overnight session, but fund spreading after the U.S. open weighed on prices. Futures were above to recover as crude oil prices ultimately rallied from a substantial decline early in the session.

Soybean oil futures gained about 1/2 percent (September contract +17 basis points per pound), but once again, selling at the 200-day moving average limited the advance. Buying at the 15-day moving average limited the early decline and futures also found support at the five-day exponential moving average but settled just below the 10-day moving average. Given the resistance at the…