U.S. soybean oil futures rallied ahead of the closing bell today, thanks to a spike in global crude oil markets. On the CME in Chicago, the most heavily traded soybean oil futures contract (March) ended the session just 6 basis points shy of 48.00 cents per pound, at 47.94 cents per pound. This was up 118 basis points per pound, or 2.5 percent.

In its February World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) released at midday on Thursday, USDA showed few overall changes to its monthly U.S. soybean oil balance sheets. However, the agency did lower its forecast for the U.S. soybean oil price by three cents to an average of 51 cents per pound.

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