New York arabica coffee futures settled firmer across the board Tuesday, with light trade and roaster buying snapping four straight sessions of sagging prices, market sources said. The New York Board of Trade's front-month May arabica delivery rose 0.70 cent to finish at $1.3135 per lb after trading in a range from $1.2950 to $1.3180. July advanced 0.75 to $1.3395 and the more distant deliveries closed 0.70 to 0.75 cent higher.
"The market is consolidating," said Rodrigo Costa, an analyst with Fimat USA, pointing out that benchmark arabica prices moved within the previous session's trading range of $1.2920 and $1.3270.
"We haven't broken through $1.29 once again, so people liked that and they bought a little more toward the end of the session. We will have to wait to see what will be the next move. So far, we still have some buying coming in from the commercials," he said.
Despite the firm tone, traders said activity was thin. Volume was estimated at 13,155 lots, off from Monday's tally of 15,101 lots.
Funds and speculators, who were largely responsible for pushing benchmark May to a contract and five-year high of $1.3950 on March 11, have been slowly liquidating some of their positions, traders said.
As of March 21, open interest fell 244 lots to 122,117 contracts. Open interest had been hovering at record high levels over the past week.
Traders put technical support in the May contract at $1.29 with resistance at $1.3270.
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