Trader's Comment: Malaysia palm oil futures fell as crude oil weaken amid worry of slowing global demand.

Malaysia palm oil futures fell as crude oil weaken amid worry of slowing global demand. Benchmark Jan09 open RM39 lower at 1587, tracking NYMEX crude oil that fell again to challenge $60 level during Asian time zone. It hit the day low of 1571 and then bounce back and hit the day high of 1610 by mid-day, following the recovering in regional equity market. However, this “bull” was not strong enough during afternoon session. Coupled with the fell of eCBOT and Dalian palm, CPO prices immediately gap down and resumed lower in the 2nd session and remained weak for the rest of the day. The subsequent collapse of regional equity market as the worries of company earnings began to get worse world wide, also spilled over to CPO prices. Statement issued by well-known analyst Dorab Mistry, which stated that CPO futures could slide to RM1200 if crude oil declines to $50 a barrel, had also provided more selling pressure to the already weak sentiment. Benchmark Jan09 slide down to 1574 before it settled at 1586.