* Traders consolidate after last week's strong gains * Palm prices expected to retrace to 2,544 ringgit per tonne-technicals (Recasts, updates closing prices, adds comments) By Michael Taylor JAKARTA, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower for the first time in six sessions on Monday, weighed down by a slump in crude prices and as traders booked profits after strong gains last week. By the close, the benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended down 1.9 percent at 2,579 ringgit ($810) per tonne. Total traded volume stood at 36,025 lots of 25 tonnes each, just above the usual 35,000 lots. "The market was on the high side," said a trader with a foreign brokerage in Kuala Lumpur. "The retracement is a bit of profit-taking. It is still bullish but factored into prices, and we have negative external factors like crude oil." The market could find support around 2,570 ringgit, the trader said, adding that investors were also positioning themselves ahead of the Islamic New Year holiday on Tuesday. Benchmark prices rose 7.5 percent last week, their biggest weekly gain in more than four years, to touch 2,632 ringgit, their highest since Sept. 28, 2012. Prices were aided last week by lower-than-expected production in Indonesia and Malaysia, due to wet weather and a lower production cycle than last year, traders said. Technicals showed Malaysian palm oil was expected to retrace to 2,544 ringgit per tonne, as it had failed to break a resistance at 2,630 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. "A possible correction," said a Jakarta-based palm trader. "It's like there has been over buying. "But production is the key factor here ... the production peak never really happened (and) stocks are under control." In other markets, Brent futures rose as investors bought after the previous session's steep fall, but prices could still be vulnerable to falls amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will scale back its monetary stimulus. In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December rose 0.6 percent in early Asian trade. The most-active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange was up 1 percent. Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1009 GMT Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume MY PALM OIL NOV3 2602 -47.00 2600 2633 192 MY PALM OIL DEC3 2589 -46.00 2585 2627 1544 MY PALM OIL JAN4 2579 -49.00 2578 2623 19639 CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY4 6318 -2.00 6284 6372 701628 CHINA SOYOIL MAY4 7326 +76.00 7278 7330 1026830 CBOT SOY OIL DEC3 41.84 +0.25 41.51 41.95 5276 NYMEX CRUDE DEC3 94.88 +0.27 94.45 94.92 10472 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=3.1725 Malaysian ringgit)

Source