Raw sugar drops to 2010 low

Raw sugar futures on ICE fell below 14 cents a pound to a 2010 low on Wednesday on investor selling and plentiful supplies, while New York cocoa broke a 15-day streak of gains, reversing sharply off a four-month high as investor buying dried up. Arabica coffee fell to a one-year low on chart-based selling and as weakness in the real currency attracted selling in Brazil, the world's biggest grower.
ICE May raw sugar futures settled down 0.36 cent, or 2.5 percent, at 13.79 cents a lb, just above the session low at 13.75 cents, the lowest level since May 2010. Dealers focused on the March expiry on Friday as the contract's open interest tumbled by 10,741 to 17,879 contracts on Tuesday, causing expectations for 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes to be delivered against the contract. The March/May spread was little changed, after Tuesday's volatile action took it from a 0.23 cent premium to a settlement of 0.02 cent.
May white sugar futures closed down $6.40, or 1.7 percent, at $371.60 a tonne. The market shrugged off the International Sugar Organization's forecast for a global sugar surplus of 620,000 tonnes in 2014/15, down from a surplus of 2.6 million tonnes in the prior year.
Cocoa futures tumbled from October highs after reaching technically overbought levels, traders said. May New York cocoa closed down $58, or 1.9 percent, at $2,959 a tonne, after tapping its highest since October at $3,037. The move took the market sharply below the 200-day moving average and 50 percent Fibonacci retracement from the September high. "The market is overbought and there have been a few showers in Africa to help the mid-crop and new crop flowering along," said Jack Scoville, vice president for brokerage at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
May London cocoa finished down 43 pounds, or 2.1 percent, at 1,987 pounds a tonne, after rising to the highest since October 1 at 2,038 pounds. May arabica coffee futures fell 5.45 cents, or 3.7 percent, at $1.4345 per lb, after touching $1.4235, the lowest since February 18, 2014. May robusta coffee eased $32, or 1.7 percent, to end at $1,886 a tonne.