US MIDDAY: cocoa little changed

Cocoa was little changed near one-year peaks in volatile trade early on Tuesday, as dealers waited to see whether a call to ban exports from top producer Ivory Coast would affect supplies. Sugar and coffee futures fell, caught up in a drop in the commodities complex, as markets fretted about economic tightening in Asia, a key consumer of raw materials.
ICE March cocoa rose $3 or 0.1 percent to $3,315 a tonne at 1610 GMT, easing slightly from Monday's one-year high of $3,393, touched after Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara called for a month-long ban on cocoa exports from the country, which grows a third of the world's cocoa crop. ICE March raw sugar dipped 0.6 cent or 1.9 percent to 31.70 cents a lb at 1610 GMT after ending lower on Monday. ICE March arabicas traded down 2.25 cents or 1 percent to $2.3500 per lb at 1610 GMT.