US MIDDAY: soft commodities down

Soft commodity futures reeled Wednesday from investor sales rekindled by Portugal's credit downgrade and China's interest rate rise in a largely slow session. Sugar, cocoa and coffee futures posted losses although they were all pared late in the session by short-covering in respective markets.
The volume of business though in US soft commodity markets was markedly slow, ranging from one-fourth to two-thirds below the 30-day norm at 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT), Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed. New York's October raw sugar contract fell 0.13 cent to trade at 27.47 cents per lb at 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT). ICE September arabica futures fell 2.30 cents to trade at $2.673 per lb at 12:25 p.m. New York's September cocoa contract dropped $39 to close at $3,188 per tonne.