New York coffee down

Arabica coffee futures ticked down on Monday, pressured by light producer selling and speculators taking profit from the benchmark's rise to its loftiest price in nearly three weeks, traders said.
New York Board of Trade's arabica coffee for September delivery eased 0.05 cent to settle at 99.35 cents a lb, having dealt from 98.80 to 100.40 cents - the highest price since July 13.
December arabica likewise dipped 0.05 cent to 103.45 cents and back months slipped 0.10 to 0.80 cents. "In the beginning we saw some fund buying. Then we saw some origin selling," said Rodrigo Costa, a vice president at Fimat USA, a commodity brokerage in New York.
"It seems like people don't like coffee at the moment. But if (September) gets above 101.50 (cents/lb) we are going to find good stops," he said, adding, "There doesn't seem to be much on the downside."
On the weather front, US forecaster Meteorlogix on Monday predicted it will be dry with a chance for a few light showers in top coffee producer Brazil during the next two to three days.
"A few light showers early in the week could cause some minor harvest disruptions in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil," Meteorlogix said in its daily crop weather update.
"There is no damaging cold weather expected despite a turn to much colder weather in Argentina and the south of Brazil over the weekend and early this week," it said.
Private Brazilian analysts Safras e Mercado said Brazilian farmers had picked 62 percent of an estimated 43.5 million 60-kg bags (July/June) coffee crop by July 26, down from 64 percent from a year ago.
Arabica producers were waiting for coffee cherries to mature fully, while some farmers had problems finding labour, according to a Safras analyst. Coffee futures trading volume reached an estimated 21,763 lots on the NYBOT, up from the 19,527 contracts officially tallied the previous session.
Open interest in arabica coffee futures on Friday was lower at 122,787 lots, exchange data showed. Elsewhere, the September robusta coffee contract in London closed up $21 at $1,317 a tonne, having scaled a 6-1/2-year peak of $1,352 earlier in the session.