US cocoa futures eased on Thursday for the third straight session amid orderly trade selling into a recent rally, which had driven the benchmark price to a 16-month peak earlier this week, traders said.
The New York Board of Trade's cocoa contract for September delivery fell $6 to settle at $1,696 per tonne, after trading within a relatively narrow range from $1,688 to $1,704. Back month cocoa futures lost $6 to $7.
"It was one of those days where there would be a little trade selling but then a fund would step in and take us up a little. But toward the end of the day, the market just came off," said a cocoa trader, speaking from the NYBOT cocoa ring. Traders estimated cocoa futures volume reached 12,265 contracts, of which 4,000 was comprised of speculative activity, including contract switches. That compared with 13,579 lots of cocoa futures officially tallied the previous session, exchange data showed.
In London, the Liffe's September cocoa contract declined 7 pounds to end at 977 pounds a tonne. Spot July gained 3 pounds, pushing the July/September premium out to 120 pounds.
The nearby premium in London has helped to buoy the New York market over the past two weeks, with the NYBOT September contract peaking on Wednesday at $1,738, its loftiest price since March 2005.
Cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's port of San Pedro reached 528,572 tonnes by July 9, up from 520,938 tonnes delivered to the port during the same period of the 2004/05 season, showed data from the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC). Data for top coffee producer Ivory Coast's port of Abidjan were not immediately available.
In Nigeria's port of Lagos, bean arrivals totalled 9,000 tonnes in June, rising 12.5 percent on the same month of last year, according to estimates by major exporters on Thursday.
Comments
Comments are closed.