World Vegetable Oil Prices Drop Despite Gains in Crude

Soybean oil prices fell sharply during U.S. trading on profit-taking across the soybean complex. However, as soybean futures rallied back to post gains at the close, soybean oil futures trimmed the decline. Still, liquidation of long oil share positions, despite a four-percent rally in West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, left soybean oil futures lower for the day. Overnight weakness in world vegetable oil futures weighed on palm oil prices, which also settled lower on Tuesday.

The narrowing of the spread between soybean oil and heating oil futures (HOBO), which fell from $1.68 per gallon on Thursday to $1.53 on Tuesday, should support soybean oil prices. However, given…