Palm | Kelapa Sawit

DJI-NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished flat on Monday as investors held back before congressional testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, while scattered buying lifted shares of health insurers and banks.

President Barack Obama revised plans for an overhaul of U.S. healthcare. The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index <.HMO> rose 1.7 percent, but investors said financial shares benefited from the focus shifting away from reform in that sector.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures finished higher for the fifth straight day on Monday, with the front-month March contract expiring amid a flurry of late short-covering and aided by rising gasoline futures.

Gasoline futures, which also ended up for the fifth consecutive day, were again lifted by the continuing refinery strikes in France.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March crude expired and settled up 35 cents, 35 cents, or 0.44 percent, at $80.16 a barrel, the highest close since Jan. 12's $80.79. It traded from $79.45 to $80.51, the highest since the Jan. 13 intraday high of $80.67.

CBOT-CHICAGO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade grains and soy complex close on Monday.

CBOT-SOYBEANS - March settled up 16-1/2 cents at $9.61-1/2 per bushel.

CBOT-SOYOIL - March settled up 0.31 cent at 38.83 cents per lb.

FCPO-JAKARTA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Malaysia's palm oil futures rose as much as 1.6 percent to a six-week intraday high before closing slightly off the high on Monday, taking their cue from rising crude oil and soy prices, traders said.

The market shrugged off cargo surveyors' reports of a drop of between 8.4 percent and 8.6 percent in Malaysian palm oil exports in the first 20 days of February from the same period a month before. The market hopes this will be offset by a drop in production this month, thus maintaining supportive fundamentals for prices.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Monday amid hopes of a bail-out for Greece and waning worries about U.S. tightening, but concern about property measures pared gains in Singapore, which ended flat <.FTSTI>.

Analysts said U.S. January inflation, which came in below expectations, supported the view that the U.S. fed funds rate would not go up soon despite the recent discount rate rise, which some saw as an initial tightening step.

Malaysia <.KLSE> finished up 0.7 percent, earlier climbing to its highest since Feb. 4, Indonesia <.JKSE> rose 0.4 percent and the Philippines <.PSI> added 1.24 percent.

In Singapore, the government announced a smaller budget deficit for fiscal 2010/11 as it sought to roll back some of the stimulus policies introduced at the height of the financial crisis last year.