New York cocoa settles at 13-month high

US benchmark cocoa futures ended at a 13-month peak on Monday, bolstered by follow-through speculative and fund buying amid positive technical signals for the seventh straight session, traders said.
The New York Board of Trade's cocoa contract for September delivery gained $28 or 1.71 percent to settle at $1,667 per tonne, the loftiest finish since June 2005, after trading from $1,642 to $1,678. Back months climbed $26 to $28.
Traders said automatic buy orders were triggered when the September position poked through key resistance of $1,663, which was this year's top trade on January 18. "It's a positive technical picture. We push through a resistance mark, the market escalates and everyone wants to take a position," a cocoa trader said, speaking from the NYBOT cocoa pit.
"There is no specific news. Today we saw the funds come into the market at the open and they kept on buying all day," he said, pointing out that "there is an argument that cocoa always goes up between mid June through September."
On the continuation chart, nearby cocoa over the past seven trading sessions has risen 9.5 percent to the loftiest level since March 2005. The speculators have been absorbing the bulk of producer selling of the mid crops from leading cocoa-growing countries Ivory Coast and Ghana, said a trader at a large commodity trade house.
"There seems to plenty of cocoa around and most all grades are available," he said. "There are no supply concerns." Ivory Coast's mid-crop harvest is likely to exceed initial expectations of a big 350,000-tonne crop if steady arrivals at its two ports can be maintained in the first half of July, exporters said on Monday.
Cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's ports reached an estimated 1.269 million tonnes between October 1 and July 2, up from 1.237 million tonnes at the same period last season. Final cocoa futures trading volume reached an estimated 14,551 contracts, said a trader at the NYBOT cocoa ring.
He said the speculators had bought between 2,500 and 3,000 lots. In London, the Life's September cocoa contract finished up 13 pounds at 971 pounds a tonne after hitting a 15-month peak of 980 on new fund buying.