Sugar and coffee rise

ICE sugar closed higher on Monday after falling to a 20-month low in early trade as the dollar strengthened on fears over the impact of a possible Greek exit from the euro, while Liffe robusta coffee futures extended gains to a near eight-month high.
Cocoa was lower, with the US market tumbling more than 4 percent to a two-week low, while arabica coffee nudged its way higher. Dollar-priced commodities were under pressure from a firmer greenback against a basket of currencies, making them more expensive for buyers holding other currencies.
Cash buying in thin trade bolstered sugar's rebound off 20-month lows, but the trend for commodities in general was lower on nagging fears of euro zone debt. "Everybody is worried to death about the European situation," said The Price Group analyst Jack Scoville in Chicago, adding this will continue to weigh on commodity markets going forward.
Raw sugar futures were relatively flat in light see-saw trade, with key July bouncing modestly off fresh 20-month intra-day lows as consumer buying pared their losses, brokers said. ICE July raw sugar settled up 0.05 cent at 20.27 cents per lb, having touched a 20-month low of 20.07 cents a lb. London August white sugar turned up $1.30 to settle at $557.10 per tonne.
Fundamentally, sugar prices have been pressured by the ongoing harvest of top producer Brazil's main centre-south cane crop and the prospect that India will be exporting an additional 1.0 million tonnes of sugar in the weeks ahead. Robusta coffee futures extended gains, defying the weak sentiment in commodities, hitting the highest level in nearly eight months as growing emerging market demand triggered tight supplies. Chart-based buying, with the market climbing four out of the past five sessions, as well as brisk demand from Asia and falling stocks also lifted the market, dealers said.
The move narrowed the robusta/arabica arbitrage to around 80.7 cents per lb, the lowest since June 2010. London July robusta coffee settled $9 higher at $2,136 per tonne, having earlier reached a new eight-month high of $2,144.
Speculators extended net long positions in cocoa and robusta coffee futures on NYSE Liffe in the week to May 8, exchange data showed. Arabica coffee futures were weak for most of the session, under pressure from the firmer dollar, but turned higher as bargain hunters lifted the market, dealers said.
The Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index tumbled 1.3 percent to the lowest in 19 months. July arabicas on ICE inched up 0.80 cent to close at $1.7795 per lb, above their 20-month low, basis second month, of $1.7220 per lb touched on May 9. ICE cocoa futures ignored the firm pound and sank on an increasing sense of crisis in the euro zone, a London-based broker said. ICE July cocoa closed down $58, or 2.5 percent, at $2,261 per tonne, after dropping 4.3 percent to a two-week low at $2,220.
London July cocoa dropped 35 pounds, or 2.3 percent, to close at 1,504 pounds per tonne. The expiry of the London May contract on Wednesday was boosting volumes, the broker said. Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,110,000 tonnes by May 13, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,068,928 tonnes in the same period of the previous season.