(Business Recorder) – New York cocoa futures on ICE fell on Tuesday for the third straight session as the market continued to consolidate following a short-covering rally, while raw sugar climbed.
COCOA
July New York cocoa settled down $50, or 2.1 percent, at $2,292 per tonne after dipping to a three-week low of $2,275.
This was its third straight daily decline, as a short-covering rally that had lifted prices to a three-month high on April 11 ran out of steam.
July London cocoa settled down 33 pounds, or 1.9 percent, at 1,731 pounds per tonne. Last week, data on global cocoa grindings came in above market expectations, signaling robust demand.
“People keep on talking about great demand from the grindings but the production figures are hard to ignore,” said Jason Estrada, senior trader at INTL FC Stone in Miami.
Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.803 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and April 21, exporters estimated on Tuesday, up around 14 percent year on year.
Ghana’s graded and sealed arrivals reached 698,553 tonnes between Oct. 1 and April 4, compared to 657,604 tonnes between Oct. 1 and April 12 the previous season, figures from marketing board Cocobod showed.
SUGAR
July raw sugar settled up 0.13 cent, or 1 percent, at 12.90 cents per lb, still within its recent range of between 12.50 and 13 cents.
Higher crude prices could help push the contract towards another attempt at 13 cents, but the weak Brazilian real could provide some headwind, Sucden Financial senior trader Nick Penney said in a market note.
Higher crude prices encourage cane mills to produce ethanol rather than sugar.
Brazil’s total cane crush fell for the third consecutive year in the 2018/19 crop that ended in March to 625 million tonnes.
August white sugar settled down 50 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $338.20 per tonne.
COFFEE
July arabica coffee settled up 0.4 cent, or 0.4 percent, at 93.25 cents per Lb.
On Monday, the contract climbed to a more than one-week peak of 95.25 cents on short covering, dealers said, before falling later in the session.
The contract plunged last week to a 13-1/2-year low of 89 cents, dragged down by global oversupply.
“The factors pushing coffee down have not changed. The market will maintain its downtrend for the time being,” said a dealer.
July robusta coffee settled down $17, or 1.2 percent, at $1,399 per tonne after touching $1,396, a more than three-year low.
