Raw sugar climbs

Raw sugar futures rose in their sharpest single-session gains in three weeks on Thursday, boosted partly by a weaker US dollar as the market extended its rebound following a sharp setback in prices during the last few days. Arabica coffee on ICE Futures US fell the most in two weeks on technical selling, while cocoa inched up. May raw sugar gained 0.43 cent or 3.4 percent to settle at 13.09 cents a lb, its largest single-session day of gains since April 2.
Traders said the weakening of the US dollar against a basket of currencies helped boost sugar, as was the case with a number of dollar-traded commodities. "Today is a macro buy day," said Nick Gentile, managing partner of commodity trading advisor NickJen capital in New York.
A weaker dollar boosts greenback-traded commodities by making them less expensive to holders of other currencies. In addition, real currency of top-producer Brazil gained, discouraging producer selling by reducing their local currency returns. Gentile attributed part of the session's gains to an "absence of big, chunky producer selling."
In addition, Jean-Luc Bohbot, group head of sugar at Wilmar, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that he sees scope for prices to rise given indications of inclement weather and the financial challenges faced by mills in Brazil. August white sugar futures gained $7.60, or 2.1 percent, to settle at $368.00 per tonne. July arabica futures on ICE fell 2.15 cents, or 1.5 percent, to settle at $1.4150 per lb, after a brief rally above the 40-day moving average at $1.4090 earlier in the session failed to gain significant traction.
That represented second-month arabica's sharpest single-session loss since April 10. The contract had risen to a two-week high of $1.4725 on Wednesday. July robusta coffee fell $11, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $1,830 a tonne. July London cocoa gained 12 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to settle at 1,936 pounds a tonne and July New York rose$20, or 0.7 percent, to settle at $2,802 a tonne.
The weaker dollar helped boost New York cocoa late in the session, one US trader said. Dealers were awaiting first-quarter grind data from Asia that will be released on Friday to see whether it provides further evidence of weakening demand. Europe's first-quarter grind fell 1.6 percent year-on-year, while the North American grind was down 5.8 percent.