Robusta coffee futures on Liffe rose on Wednesday for the second straight session to a six-week high, supported by heavy buying on the physical market by one major roaster, dealers said. Arabica coffee futures on ICE Futures US turned down a shade in thin dealings ahead of the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, as the market's rebound from a near five-year low earlier this month showed signs of running out of steam. Cocoa futures on both Liffe and ICE dropped for the second straight day, retreating further from last week's more than two-year high, while sugar was quietly lower.
ICE soft agricultural commodity futures and options markets will shut Thursday for Thanksgiving. They will open at their regular times on Friday and close early at 1 pm EST (1800 GMT).
Robusta coffee futures on Liffe extended gains from the previous session, supported by a surge of cash-market buying by a major roaster, dealers said. January robusta rose $18, or 1.1 percent, to $1,621 a tonne by 12:16 pm EST (1716 GMT). On ICE, March arabica futures dropped 0.60 cent, or 0.6 percent, to $1.0815 per lb. The second month set a near five-year low of $1.0415 earlier in November.
"The market is oversupplied so I think any upturn in the market will be short-lived for the time being," said Birgit Wippler, commodity analyst with F.O. Licht.
"I don't think there is an end in sight (to the downward trend) at the moment because of the excess supply."
Cocoa futures on Liffe were lower with March settling down 15 pounds, or 0.9 percent, at 1,736 pounds a tonne. The market has been slowly losing ground after peaking at 1,788 pounds a week ago, the highest for the second month contract since September 2011.
"We've seen a continuation of what we can assume is speculator-led profit-taking," said Justin Grandison, director of cocoa brokerage at ABN Amro Clearing Bank NV.
"Fundamentals are solid (supportive) and haven't changed, but technically the market was unable to achieve follow-through buying to reach higher levels, so we've found ourselves backtracking on steady and consistent profit-taking."
ICE March cocoa lost $3, or 0.1 percent, to end at $2,766 a tonne.
Raw sugar futures were nearly unchanged, consolidating ahead of the US holiday as dealers said the expected weakening of Brazil's currency, the real, would drag on global sugar prices.
"The view is that the real will devalue relatively quickly, that we're going to start seeing potential slides in the early part of next year, unless the central bank comes up with some form of fresh policy to hold values," a London-based broker said.
A weaker real cushions Brazilian producers against the full negative effects of lower global prices.
"The market can move sub 16 cents ... we're ending the year with soft physical values, with off-take being seen as nothing more than limited replenishing of pipelines," the broker said. March raws on ICE eased 0.04 cent, or 0.2 percent, to 17.26 cents a lb, while March whites on Liffe edged $1.20 lower, or 0.3 percent, to $460.30 per tonne.
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