Cocoa climbs to 2011 high, coffee up from near two-year low

Cocoa futures on ICE rose to the highest in more than 4-1/2 years on Monday, as weekly arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast again fell below year-ago levels, raising 2015-16 output concerns after dry weather earlier in the season. Arabica coffee climbed from the prior session's near two-year low, giving up much of the prior session's steep losses on heavy December/March spreading, while raw sugar was little changed as the market took a breather following a volatile two weeks.
Soft commodities bucked the weak trend earlier in the session that saw the 19-market Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity Index fall as much as 1.5 percent to a 13-year low, with the US dollar rising against major currencies as investor worries faded over Friday night's attacks in Paris. Cocoa rose for the fifth straight session as exporters estimated that about 47,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to Ivorian ports last week, down from a year ago.
"The arrivals were down - that has spooked the market," one London-based futures broker said. London March cocoa settled up 10 pounds, or 0.4 percent, at 2,298 pounds per tonne after peaking at 2,307, the highest for the benchmark second month since March 2011. New York March cocoa settled up $14, or 0.4 percent, at $3,377 per tonne after touching the same milestone at $3,390.
Arabica coffee futures rose after falling to the lowest since January 2014 on Friday, with the drop seen as overdone. March arabica settled up 2.4 cent, or 2.1 percent, at $1.182 per lb, while January robusta settled up $8, or 0.5 percent, at $1,560 per tonne. Raw sugar prices consolidated after surging to a nine-month peak of 15.53 cents per lb on November 3, only to pull back 10 percent the following four sessions and then climb again.
March raw sugar settled up 0.14 cent, or 0.9 percent, at 15.18 cents per lb. "Perhaps the main 'theme' for the sugar fundamental bears continues to be the high level of actual stocks (ie India) vis-?-vis the projected statistical deficit for the coming year's global balance sheet," Sucden Financial's Thomas Kujawa said. "The bulls' main point of attack is then, perhaps, the potential for adverse weather to impact a financially constrained industry that in Brazil must compete in the domestic liquid fuels arena." March white sugar settled up $1.80, or 0.5 percent, at $405.30 per tonne, after a small 44,800 tonnes were tendered against the December contract.