Vegetable Oil Prices Continue to Slide

World vegetable oil markets continued to move lower on Tuesday as Chinese futures, which have lead world prices higher, dropped sharply, with palm oil futures down more than 2 1/2 percent and soybean oil prices off about 1 3/4 percent. Technically driven profit-taking and the sharp decline in palm oil and soybean oil values on Monday likely contributed to the weakness. Despite the relatively large declines, both markets settled about two percent above the low of the day. The rally in Chinese prices has been so strong. It is tough to say it is over after one day of weakness. However, analysts expect the U.S. to ship nearly two million tonnes of soybeans per week to Chinese buyers in the coming months, which should help fill some of the gaps in the Chinese vegetable oil balance sheet left by crop losses due to flooding this summer.

So…