* USDA report seen as slightly bearish - trader * Short covering earlier boosted palm oil prices By Idayu Suparto SINGAPORE, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures edged down on Thursday as the market booked profits after a U.S. report raised the outlook for grain supply that weighed on food commodities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture made sharply higher revision to global stocks of nearly every type of grain except or U.S. soybeans that are usually crushed to make competing soyoil. U.S. soybean stockpile was forecast at 160 million bushels at the end of 2011/12, 12 percent below what traders expected, although traders in Asia said it was not enough to support prices of palm oil. "When the report came out yesterday night, we saw that actually the numbers were kind of neutral to slightly bearish," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, referring to the monthly U.S. report that updates stock forecasts for grains and oilseeds. "Even if there is a supportive input in that report, we believe that the market has already reacted on this issue," he added. At midday, December palm oil futures <0#FCPO:> on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange traded 0.1 percent lower at 2,861 Malaysian ringgit ($914) a tonne. The previous day, the contract hit a near two week high. Traded volumes stood at 5,749 lots of 25 tonnes each. Palm oil snapped a three-day winning streak that was initially driven by rising export data, short covering ahead of the U.S. agriculture report and optimism about the European financial markets. "So those people who went long yesterday are probably going short again because the market was still anticipating for another round of selling," the trader added. Asian shares rose on Thursday on growing hopes that Europe is taking concrete steps to contain the region's debt woes and head off a systemic banking crisis. Other key commodity markets fell on weak economic data from China -- one of the largest commodity buyers in the world. Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell to near $111 on Thursday, weighing on other edible oil prices. U.S. soyoil for December delivery barely moved in Asian trade. China's most active May 2012 soybean oil contract <0#DBY:> gained 0.4 percent. Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0529 GMT Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume M'ASIA PALM OIL OCT1 0 +0.00 2865 0 0 M'ASIA PALM OIL NOV1 2855 -8.00 2832 2865 200 M'ASIA PALM OIL DEC1 2861 -3.00 2835 2868 3375 M'ASIA PALM OIL JAN2 2871 -7.00 2845 2878 1290 DALIAN SOY OIL MAY2 9298 +32.00 9256 9326 232946 CBOT SOY OIL DEC1 51.82 -0.04 51.80 52.09 1775 NYMEX CRUDE NOV1 84.85 -0.72 84.64 85.19 5253 Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound Dalian soy oil in Chinese yuan per tonne Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel ($1 = 3.131 Ringgit)

Source