US benchmark cocoa futures firmed across the board in range-bound trading on Thursday, with modest support coming from foreign investors taking advantage of a weakening dollar, traders said.
The most-active December cocoa contract rose $7 to settle at $1,434 a tonne on the New York Board of Trade, after dealing in a narrow range from $1,431 to $1,444.
March 2005 rose $8 to $1,451, while distant futures advanced $7 to $9.
"This weakening of the dollar, New York was expected to trade higher. We got up to $1,444 but there was no follow-through on the upside," a trader said. "Basically, we are stuck in a range."
Meanwhile, cocoa deliveries in top grower Ivory Coast are at a standstill for the fourth day as talks between union officials representing striking cocoa farmers and industry officials on Thursday failed to produce a deal, Reuters in Abidjan reported.
Cocoa farmers started their strike on Monday to protest against a minimum indicative farmgate price. The farmers want a higher price than the 390 CFA francs (74 cents) set by officials last week for the 2004/05 season.
News of the strike bolstered cocoa futures in the week, but market players are waiting for fresh direction to move prices out of a stubborn $1,390-$1,480 trading range that has held for a week.
NYBOT's estimated cocoa futures volume just before the market closed reached 3,585 lots, compared with 4,624 lots the previous session.
Open interest in NYBOT cocoa rose 208 lots to 121,313 lots as of October 20.
Comments
Comments are closed.