Following a volatile week, world vegetable oil prices ended mixed on Friday. Bargain buying before the weekend drove gains in palm oil markets and fueled an early but fleeting advance in soybean oil futures. Optimism that an agreement will be reached in U.S. debt-ceiling discussions initially boosted the U.S. dollar, equities and energy markets that spilled into most of the agricultural markets. 

Giving back initial gains, benchmark soybean oil futures (July contract) in Chicago closed near unchanged, down just two basis points to 47.27 cents per pound. The nearby contract, which fell to better-than-two-year lows on May 17 due to healthy stockpiles in the U.S., rapid crop planting progress in the Midwest, and news that Russia agreed to an extension of the Black Sea grain export deal, lost 4.5 percent on the week.  

Figure 1.

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