US cocoa futures finished on positive ground in range-bound trading Thursday, finding some support from currency-related buying amid an eroding dollar, market sources said.
The New York Board of Trade's cocoa contract for July delivery ended up $5 at $1,566 a tonne, having dealt from $1,552 to $1,574 - inside the previous day's trading range.
September cocoa advanced $6 to settle at $1,586 a tonne, and back months gained $6 to $7.
"The dollar helped out a little bit," said a cocoa trader, speaking from the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) trading floor.
"The market got a little pop up at the end," he said.
The dollar took a hit against major currencies after softer-than-expected US retail sales pared the greenback's earlier broad-based gains.
Arbitrage-type activity between New York and London cocoa markets was spurred by sterling rising to a one-year peak against the dollar following strong British manufacturing data.
In London, the Liffe's July cocoa contract concluded down 3 pounds at 876 pounds a tonne. Traders said the bulls in New York were reluctant to extend their long positions in the face of rising bean arrivals at ports in top cocoa grower Ivory Coast.
Between October 1 and May 7, cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's ports reached an estimated 1,066,196 tonnes, up nearly 2 percent from the 2004/05 season.
"There is no question about the fundamentals. Beans come in every week and slowly but surely they are adding up, so the deficit people have been talking about is slowly disappearing," said a cocoa trader at a commodity brokerage.
"We broke out technically (earlier this week), but rather unconvincingly," he added.
Still, cocoa traders are wary about the prospect for growing tension between rival factions in Ivory Coast, which has been divided by a rebel-held north and government-controlled south since a 2002-2003 civil war.
A UN-backed peace plan for disarmament, reconciliation and national polls have helped to quell the tension, yet some African mediation officials said this week they were concerned the timetable for elections to be held by October 31 was at risk.
Estimated final cocoa futures trading volume reached 9,991 lots on the New York Board of Trade, down from the 15,794 contracts officially tallied the previous session.
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