US benchmark March cocoa futures settled mildly higher on Wednesday, after speculative buying buoyed values from the session's lows pressured by the strengthening dollar, traders said.
"It was an adjustment to currency, the dollar's a little stronger. The New York market was basically following London's performance today and they were a bit weaker," one trader said.
The NYBOT cocoa contract for March delivery edged up $8 per tonne to settle at $1,579, trading in a wide band from $1,554 to $1,581. May rise $7 to $1,599, trading between $1,576 and $1,600. The rest increased $1 to $6, with the exception of December, which settled down $1.
Estimated trading volume near the close was 8,928 lots, down from the last official tally at 9,811 lots. In London, cocoa futures settled mostly higher with business dominated by rolling forward of positions out of front-month December ahead of its expiry next week, dealers said.
London's December closed down 8 pounds at 815 pounds per tonne while most other months settled higher, with March cocoa finishing up 3 pounds at 853 pounds per tonne, after trading from 845 to 855 pounds.
Cocoa output in the world's No 2 producer Ghana is targeted to rise to at least 1 million tonnes within three years from some 600,000 tonnes in the current season, an official at industry regulator Cocobod said. Charles Bernard Tim, deputy chief executive (operations) of the Ghana Cocoa Board, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that he expected cocoa prices to rise in 2007 due to an expected fall in output in West Africa.
German January-September 2006 chocolate sales rose about one percent on the year, a survey from confectionery retail and industry association Sweets Global Network estimated on Wednesday. Development of sales for the full year would depend on turnover in the Christmas season, which now accounts for 10 percent of annual German chocolate sales, the association said. The reasons for the rise included greater sales of new types of superior quality chocolate with a higher cocoa content, it said.
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