US cocoa closed little changed on Monday, after correcting mildly higher for most of the session following on Friday's sharp drop, while position rolling out of the front month capped gains, traders said.
"It didn't follow through so I think people just sold off a little bit," one trader said about late-day dealings that pressured prices, noting funds as sellers. The New York Board Of Trades benchmark September cocoa contract closed flat at $1,931 per tonne, in a trading band from $1,918 to $1,945. The rest ended in a range from $4 lower to $1 higher. The September contract trading on the IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic platform was down $2 at $1,929 at 12:53 pm.
Trading range from $1,919 to $1,953. The key contract closed at a five-week low on Friday, the third straight day for a weaker close, with the lowest trade down 9.8 percent from the highest July 24. September/December switch selling capped prices during the session, one trader said. In the top producer, rainfall was strong in Ivory Coast's main cocoa-growing regions over the last week, farmers said on Monday, boosting pod development weeks ahead of the start of the 2007/08 harvest, expected to be a good one.
Weather in West Africa will be continued scattered showers and thunderstorms through on Tuesday, DTN Meteorlogix said. In related news, President Laurent Gbagbo visited Ivory Coast's rebel stronghold on Monday for the first time since a civil war and burned weapons at a peace party with former rebel leader Gallium Soro.
In NYBOT cocoa, the net long position held by speculators fell to 52,035 lots from 52,598, in the week to July 24, a weekly Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report released on Friday. Open-outcry volume around noon reached 3,311 lots, against the 2,376 lots tallied on Friday, when 27,883 contracts traded electronically, NYBOT said.
Comments
Comments are closed.