New York cocoa futures fall

US cocoa futures slumped late in the session to close lower on Monday on fund liquidation, dealers said. "Last week we'd seen industry buying every day and essentially had a bit of a rally in the market. Today, it's been lackluster trading and most other commodities that began their day with a plus sign have deteriorated over the course of the trading session," one trader said.
The trader also noted that a cocoa industry cocktail party hosted by a major brokerage in New York on Thursday is keeping trading rooms quiet this week. In open-outcry, ICE March cocoa futures sank $15 to end at $1,936 per tonne. The rest ended $15 to $22 lower.
In electronic trade, the March contract dropped $22 at $1,929, at 12:25 pm EST (1725 GMT), trading in a band of $1,925 to $1,954. One contract aside, the rest were down $12 to $23. London's Liffe March contract slipped 2 pounds at 950 pounds per tonne, trading between 949 and 958 pounds.
In the world's top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast's economy will grow around 3 percent next year, above government forecasts, as the West African country reaps the benefits of a peace deal, the International Monetary Fund said.
Cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's ports remained strong last week, but for the first time this season the pace of arrivals slipped below that of last year, according to estimates by big exporters on Monday.
Shippers reckoned arrivals totalled 412,000 tonnes between October 1 and November 25, well up on the 287,571 tonnes received in the same period last year, though the estimated 60,000 tonnes that arrived from November 19-25 were slightly down on the 64,544 tonnes received by ports in the same period last season.
For weather, rains were light and sunny spells were lengthy in Ivory Coast's cocoa zones last week, farmers said, which gave respite to the trees after months of regular rainfall which some growers said was excessive.
DTN Meteorlogix forecast widely scattered showers and afternoon thundershowers through the week for the West African cocoa belt. ICE estimated around noon that 386 contracts had traded in the pit, compared with 398 lots that traded on the floor on Wednesday when 6,467 contracts traded on the screen.