Arabica coffee futures on ICE sank more than 5 percent in heavy volume on Thursday, marking their biggest tumble in 2-1/2 months after an influential trade house raised its global production forecast and technical sell signals were triggered. Cocoa futures resumed their rally, reaching the highest levels in more then seven months, with gains in the New York market as the British pound soared against the dollar. Raw sugar futures fell for the second straight day to a two-week low as dealers focused on Brazilian cane industry data released just as the market closed.
Coffee futures fell sharply after Volcafe, the Swiss-based coffee division of commodities house ED&F Man, raised its global coffee output forecasts. "We have continued selling from yesterday and the Volcafe report," said one US broker. Sell stops caused prices to fall even more dramatically, triggered at session lows and at $1.30 an ounce, basis July.
July arabica coffee futures settled down 7.55 cents, or 5.6 percent, at $1.2845 per lb, their biggest one-day drop since March 3. Total volume exceeded 52,000 lots, more than double the 250-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed. July robusta coffee closed down $43, or 2.5 percent, at $1,682 a tonne. New York cocoa resumed its rally, after falling for the first time in 10 sessions on Wednesday, sparked by smaller-than-expected output in No 2 grower Ghana and sustained by the rising sterling and technical buy signals.
New York July cocoa rose $38, or 1.2 percent, to finish at $3,163 a tonne, after touching $3,181, a seven-month peak. Total volume neared 28,000 lots, up 25 percent from the average, preliminary data showed. London July cocoa closed up 12 pounds, or 0.6 percent, at 2,096 pounds per tonne, after hitting a contract peak of 2,104 pounds. In sugar, the July raw futures eased 0.1 cent, or 0.8 percent, to end at 12.49 cents a lb, the lowest since May 5.
Brazil's center-south region will produce 31.8 million tonnes of sugar in 2015/16, down from 31.99 million tonnes in the previous season, cane industry group Unica said in its first forecast for the new crop. August white sugar ended down $3.70, or 1 percent, at $356.90 a tonne.
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