US cocoa futures ended down but off their lows on Wednesday as the market extended a sell-off from the previous session, which was tempered with trade buying before the close.
Dealers said the benchmark cocoa contract on the New York Board of Trade was likely to stay in a range of $1,415-$1,460 a tonne in the near term, with pressure on the downside, as few factors pointed to a rally.
"I think the beginning of the main crop arrivals from Ivory Coast are already weighing on this market, and this is how it will perform in the next few weeks," said a trader. "But there was some arbitrage and trade buying towards the close today, so we'll probably see the market meeting resistance at above $1,460 occasionally." NYBOT cocoa for December ended down $1 at $1,448 a tonne way off the session low of $1,435, but not close either to the day's peak of $1,463.
March, the nearest forward contract also closed $1 down at $1,483. The rest of the NYBOT cocoa complex ended $2-$3 off.
Final trade volume was estimated at only 8,761 lots, compared with Tuesday's official count of 6,617 lots. On the industry front, cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's port of San Pedro reached 594,417 tonnes by September 30, 2006, according to data from the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
The data compared with 569,239 tonnes delivered to the port during the same period of the 2004/05 season. Also in Ivory Coast on Wednesday, gendarmes protesting unpaid bonuses fired shots and blocked a bridge in Abidjan in a brief protest that jarred nerves already on edge over the war-divided country's stalled peace process.
That incident helped London cocoa futures to spurt briefly higher in a session that otherwise saw light industry buying largely offset by origin selling.
London's December cocoa settled up 1 pound at 825 pounds, towards the bottom of the day's range of 845 to 821 pounds while March finished unchanged at 841 pounds. Total volume was 8,749 lots.
Comments
Comments are closed.