Canada Markets

There seems to be lots of speculation over the rationale for the sell-off faced in oilseed and vegetable oil futures Friday with light holiday trade in the U.S. perhaps exaggerating the move while algorithm trading triggered selling.

It is interesting to note that cash trade for vegetable oils in Europe resulted in higher prices over the week of Nov. 20.

As seen on the attached chart, crude palm oil (red line) closed higher for a third week, up $20 per metric ton (mt) USD to $975/mt, its highest close in almost three months.

Sunflower oil (green line) also traded higher for the third week, up $7.25/mt USD to $977.25/mt for its highest weekly close since mid-August. The cash price for soybean oil shows the largest percentage increase from its most recent low, up 15.5% from its Sept. 11 weekly low.

The brown line represents rapeseed oil, which gained $16/mt this week to close at $1,024/mt, its first increase in three weeks and up from its lowest weekly close since the week of June 26.

The upper blue line shows an $11.25/mt gain in soybean oil FOB Rotterdam over the week, a third weekly gain that shows the cash trade reaching its highest level in over one month.

The lower study shows the rapeseed/soybean oil spread which strengthened or narrowed to $60.25/mt this week, up from the previous week's close that pointed to the weakest close since early September.

Cliff Jamieson can be reached at cliff.jamieson@dtn.com.

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