Palm oil eased on the European vegetable oils market on Friday due to higher than expected end-January Malaysian palm oil stocks and a slight dip in Malaysian palm oil exports in the first 10 days of February. Asking prices for palm oil were between $5 and $17.50 a tonne lower after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between nine and 35 ringgit per tonne down.
Malaysian palm oil stocks at the end of January fell 7.6 percent from a month earlier to 1.54 million tonnes, industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) said, but that was smaller than the 10.7 percent decline predicted by a Thomson Reuters survey.
The US Agriculture Department meanwhile left ending stocks for US soyabeans unchanged in its monthly supply-and-demand report, while many players had been expecting a drop because of export demand. "The European cash market was expecting bullish news from both USDA and MPOB, but the first was neutral and the latter bearish," one broker said.
At 1730 GMT CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.08 and 0.19 cents per lb down on technical selling with Chicago traders buying soyameal contracts and selling soyaoil futures. Strong energy markets limited losses.
EU rapeoil was offered between four and seven euros per tonne higher, tracking technical strength in rapeseed futures, which followed the firmer trend in Chicago soyabeans. A slightly stronger dollar also underpinned euro-priced products. Lauric oils dropped between $20 and $50 a tonne down from Friday, tracking the weak trend in palm oil and because sellers were trying to find buyers after concerns over tight supplies started to fade.