* Traders book profits from earlier weather-fuelled rally * Futures touch fresh high at 3,147 ringgit * Palm oil to end rebound at or below 3,155 ringgit -technicals (Updates prices) By Chew Yee Kiat SINGAPORE, July 4 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures edged lower on Thursday, off a five-week high, as traders booked profits from a weather-fuelled rally that had boosted prices by more than 3 percent this week. Traders took cues from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which on Monday slashed its condition rating for soybean crops to 45 percent good-to-excellent, from 53 percent a week ago, due to extreme hot and dry weather. Fewer higher-quality soybeans mean lower volumes are likely to be crushed into soybean oil, which could mean more vegetable oil demand shifting to the cheaper palm oil. "At the moment fundamentals are supporting bullishness, but it looks like after going up so much for the past few days the market could slow down and retrace back for a while," said a trader based in Singapore with a foreign commodities house. "But we expect prices to go up if next Monday's crop rating is bad again," the trader added, referring to the USDA report. Benchmark September palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.1 percent to close at 3,122 ringgit ($990) per tonne. Prices earlier rose as high as 3,147 ringgit, a level not seen since May 30. Traded volumes stood at 26,553 lots of 25 tonnes each, slightly higher than the usual 25,000 lots. On the technicals front, palm oil will end its rebound at or below a resistance at 3,155 ringgit per tonne, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. Malaysia's palm oil demand climbed in June from a month earlier, according to cargo surveyor data, boosted by higher exports to India and Pakistan. Both South Asian countries were stocking ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that begins at the end of July, when fasting in the day is followed by feasting at night. Higher exports could pile further pressure on Malaysia's stocks, which fell to a 13-month low in May. Crude oil prices fell back on Wednesday as investors' focus returned to the grim economic backdrop and they took profits after sharp gains in previous sessions. In other vegetable oils markets, the most active January 2013 soyoil contract on the Dalian commodity exchange edged up 0.5 percent on U.S. weather concerns. The U.S. market is closed for the Independence Day holiday. Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1004 GMT Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume MY PALM OIL JUL2 3114 +16.00 3100 3114 124 MY PALM OIL AUG2 3110 -4.00 3100 3133 1243 MY PALM OIL SEP2 3122 -2.00 3110 3147 17296 CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN3 8190 +40.00 8152 8246 259780 CHINA SOYOIL JAN3 9718 +40.00 9690 9788 517180 CBOT SOY OIL DEC2 54.00 +0.00 0.00 0.00 0 NYMEX CRUDE AUG2 87.24 -0.42 86.50 87.77 20086 Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel ($1=3.15 Malaysian ringgit)

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