*The Jacobsen will not publish a Vegetable Oil Bulletin on Monday, January 17 due to the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We will resume our normal publication schedule on Tuesday, January 18.**

Profit-Taking, Liquidation Weigh on Palm Oil, Soy Oil Sees Slight Gain

Vegetable oil futures were mixed on Friday, as soybean oil prices posted a marginal gain on late-day position covering. Benchmark palm oil futures backed off Thursday’s fresh record-high close amid worries about plunging export demand. Cargo surveyor data for the first 15 days of January suggested Malaysian palm oil shipments fell more than 40 percent from the same period a month earlier. The export fears, combined with overnight weakness in soybean oil prices in the U.S., triggered selling in the palm oil market. The most actively traded palm oil contract in Malaysia lost 3/4 percent on Friday (March contract -38 ringgit per tonne) but still settled above…