US cocoa futures ended in negative territory on Wednesday, with producer selling and speculative profit-taking knocking the benchmark contract down from a 3-month peak, traders said.
The New York Board of Trade's cocoa contract for July delivery settled down $2 at $1,561 a tonne, having dealt from $1,547 to $1,578 the loftiest trade since February 10. The September contract lost the same to conclude at $1,580 a tonne, while back months shed $1 to $2.
Cocoa traders cited producer selling from leading cocoa producers Ivory Coast and Ghana, where the mid crop harvests for the 2005/06 season are in progress.
"There was a lot of origin today," a cocoa trader said from the trading ring at the NYBOT. "They (origin sellers) came in at the high and they sold late in the day. They saw an opportunity to get some size off and they did," he said.
"There was a lot of selling in London too," he added. The Life's July cocoa contract in London finished down 3 pounds at 879 pounds a tonne, after trading from 867 to 892 pounds. "The specs (speculators) were definitely taking some profits today," said another cocoa trader.
Traders estimated final cocoa futures trading volume reached 15,730 contracts on the NYBOT, down from the 20,582 contracts.
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