13/07/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures tumbled on Thursday, as traders took profit, prompted partly by a forecast for rain over the weekend in the drought-hit, soy-producing U.S. Midwest that could ease concerns of tight oilseed supply.

Lower Malaysian palm oil exports for the first 10 days of July also fuelled some of the declines, as the market had largely priced in lower ending stocks in June and strong Asian festival demand for the past few weeks.

"All the bullish factors have already been laid on the table, so traders just have to take profit and decide on what to do next," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

"The rain in a way helped ease the market because it was on a bullish weather run. But if the rain doesn't materialise, traders will put their money back into the market."

Benchmark September palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 2.3 percent to close at 3,012 ringgit ($944) per tonne.

Traded volumes stood at 45,851 lots of 25 tonnes each, much higher than the usual 25,000 lots.

Technicals were bearish as palm oil is expected to drop to a support at 2,970 ringgit, a break below which will open the way towards 2,919 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

The weather is expected to turn wetter for parts of the U.S. Midwest, Commodity Weather Group said in a note to clients on Wednesday, offering some relief on the tight global oilseed supply situation.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cut soybean yields due to the persistent drought and analysts said that could be supportive for palm oil prices.

Market players are also on the lookout for the possibility of El Nino returning to the region as dry weather could cut palm oil output, further eating into 14-month-low palm oil stocks in June.

While cargo surveyors said Malaysia's palm oil exports fell sharply from July 1 to 10, the market was expecting more orders to come in as the Asian festival season gets underway with China and India celebrating key holidays from September to November.

Oil prices fell below $100 per barrel on Thursday, retreating after a 2 percent rally the previous session, as the International Energy Agency said a slowdown could cap prices while investors waited for China's GDP data due on Friday.

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil for December delivery lost 0.8 percent. The most active January 2013 soyoil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange also fell 2.3 percent.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1005 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JUL2    3010   -43.00    3005    3010      27
  MY PALM OIL      AUG2    3013   -56.00    2987    3030    1927
  MY PALM OIL      SEP2    3012   -70.00    2995    3041   29854
  CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN3    7998  -184.00    7984    8114  295556
  CHINA SOYOIL     JAN3    9570  -216.00    9570    9700  556014
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC2   54.22    -0.44   54.00   54.90    8358
  NYMEX CRUDE      AUG2   84.95    -0.86   84.81   86.20   26008

  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=3.189 Malaysian ringgit)