Raw sugar turns lower as short-covering rally stalls

Raw sugar futures on ICE turned lower on Friday as a short-covering rally ran out of steam while coffee and cocoa prices edged higher. London-based white sugar, robusta coffee and cocoa contracts will be shut on Monday for a public holiday in Britain.
October raw sugar edged down by 0.03 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 13.99 cents per lb by 1338 GMT after peaking at 14.11 cents, the highest for the front month since August 7. Dealers said the run-up in price this week was triggered partly by news that Brazil will tax ethanol imports for the first time to protect local producers from growing shipments from the United States.
"The duty increase is supportive for domestic ethanol prices in Brazil, which should see mills that have the flexibility produce more ethanol at the expense of sugar," ING said in a market note. Short-covering by funds and other investors gave added impetus to the run-up in prices, dealers said.
"The tariffs were the ignition but probably only a small part of the fuel," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey, adding that investors had been heavily short. October white sugar was up a marginal $0.10, or 0.03 percent, at $382.70 a tonne.
Dealers were awaiting the release in the near future of Brazil crushing data for the first half of August, which could show a slight year-on-year increase after favourable weather during the period. December arabica coffee rose 0.15 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $1.2805 per lb, edging away from a six-week low of $1.2715 set on Thursday.
Dealers were keeping a close watch on the prospects for Brazil's 2018/19 harvest, an on-year in its biennial crop cycle, which is going into its flowering window. "The expectation for a bumper 2018/19 Brazil arabica crop could keep futures prices subdued, but that crop has yet to flower," Rabobank said in a market note, adding that prices could be volatile during the flowering period.
November robusta coffee rose $16, or 0.8 percent, to $2,083 a tonne. December London cocoa rose 18 pounds, or 1.2 percent, to 1,523 pounds a tonne. Dealers said the market was rising towards the middle of this month's range of 1,461 to 1,624 pounds but lacked any major upward momentum. December New York cocoa rose $19, or 1 percent, to $1,914 a tonne.