Malaysian palm oil followed crude oil price trends, edging up slightly. Yesterday afternoon, foreign merchant quotes increased substantially following the stronger market. The domestic import loss for near-month cargoes widened, but import profits for far-month cargoes remained considerable, leading to an accelerated pace of far-month vessel procurement. End-user demand in the spot market remained weak due to low acceptance of high prices. Coupled with increasing domestic inventory pressure, spot basis quotes came under downward pressure. In the short term, palm oil is expected to maintain a range-bound firm trend. Attention should be paid to next week's MPOB report and changes in US biofuel policies.