Late-Afternoon Rally Breaks Soy Oil Out of Trading Range

Vegetable oil futures were mixed on Friday as a late-session rally lifted soybean oil futures, while nearby palm oil prices were marginally mixed. Crude oil prices traded within a 50-cent per barrel range for most of the overnight session but declined sharply at the U.S. opening as hope for a U.S. stimulus deal before the election faded. Still, the decline left the benchmark December contract above the critical $40 per barrel level at the end of agricultural trading, which minimized the impact of the deterioration on vegetable oil prices.

Nearby soybean oil futures jumped by 1 1/4 percent (December contract +42 basis points per pound), but gains in deferred contracts were smaller (December 2021 contract +18 basis points). Concerns about the impact of a crushing plant’s shutdown in Argentina and robust domestic…