Arabica coffee down

Arabica coffee futures slipped on Wednesday, pressured by selling from top grower Brazil, while beneficial dry weather for that country's sugar harvest weighed on sugar prices. Cocoa was little changed in both London and New York. December arabica coffee futures closed down 2.55 cents at $1.5465 per lb. "The outlook for arabicas is very bearish," said a London-based broker.
"There's still the remainder of Brazil's crop to sell, that's going to weigh on the market. I think arabica could come down to $1.40." Reports that coffee warehouses in New Jersey were not damaged by Hurricane Sandy, a devastating storm that pummelled the US East Coast earlier this week, causing flooding in parts of New York and New Jersey, also weighed on the market.
However on Wednesday, Matthew Hammond, operations manager for Continental Terminals at Goose Creek, S.C., said two of its New Jersey warehouses had been damaged, though details were unavailable due to power outages and spotty cell reception. Hammond believed the damaged warehouses contained coffee but this could not be immediately verified. Continental operates five ICE Futures certified cocoa warehouses and three certified coffee warehouses.
Dependable Distribution Services reported no damage to any of its seven certified cocoa warehouses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while Florence Warehouse also reported no damage to its four coffee warehouses in New Jersey. Strong production elsewhere added to bearish sentiment in arabica futures. "We expect a 2012/13 arabica surplus of around 6.5 million bags," said Cole Martin, commodities analyst at Business Monitor International.
January robusta coffee futures settled down $15 at $1,968 a tonne, after touching $1,966 earlier in the session, the lowest level for the second month since July 15, due to pressure from top producer Vietnam's large crop. "Most people have a flat supply and demand picture for robusta," the London broker said. March sugar futures eased 0.10 cent to finish at 19.46 cents a lb, remaining near Monday's five-week low of 19.27 cents, as the tail end of Brazil's harvest was expected to benefit from dry weather. Profit-taking on the last trading day of the month also added pressure, dealers said.
December white sugar on Liffe settled down $2.90 at $541.80 per tonne. ICE December cocoa settled down $2 at $2,388 per tonne, steadying after a volatile previous session, with dealers noting potential for speculator activity to be driven by month-end book squaring. Reports of undamaged certified stocks on the US East Coast following the hurricane, also calmed the market. Benchmark Liffe March cocoa futures settled up 7 pounds, or 0.5 percent, at 1,548 pounds per tonne.