Cocoa falls back toward multi-month lows, sugar tumbles

Cocoa futures on ICE fell 2 percent in heavy volume on Monday, back toward multi-month lows on bigger-than-expected bean arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast and abundant nearby supplies, pushing the spot spread in London to a contract low.
Raw sugar futures tumbled in late-day dealings, pressured by subdued physical trade and prospects for a big 2016-17 harvest in Brazil, while coffee was little changed.
The London spot cocoa spread fell to a discount of 11 pounds per tonne, a contract low, pressuring futures prices, traders said.
"A weak spot spread translates into no concern about near-term supplies," said one US trader.
"Arrivals were slightly better than expected this week."
Ivorian bean arrivals for 2015-16 so far were estimated by exporters at 1,014,000 tonnes by January 24, down from 1,045,000 tonnes at the same period of the previous season.
March London cocoa settled down 35 pounds, or 1.7 percent, at 2,049 pounds per tonne, just above last week's five-month low at 2,016 pounds.
March New York cocoa settled down $53, or 1.9 percent, at $2,819 per tonne, within sight of Thursday's 9-1/2-month low at $2,755.
March raws settled down 0.32 cent, or 2.2 percent, at 14.1 cents per lb.
"We have a monster crop coming," a senior European physical sugar trader said, referring to the next centre-south Brazil cane harvest expected to start around April.
Global physical raw sugar trading has been slow but demand will eventually pick up driven by the buoyant white sugar market, traders said.
March whites settled down $7.5, or 1.8 percent, at $421 per tonne.
The premiums of both the raw and white spot sugar spreads fell, an indication of weak physical demand.
Robusta coffee turned lower but remained within the prior session's range, pressured by a big carryover into the 2015-16 harvest in top grower Vietnam.
Dealers said they expected a pick-up in producer selling before the Vietnamese New Year holidays, known as Tet, which start around February 8.
March robusta settled down $6, or 0.4 percent, at $1,389 per tonne, holding above Thursday's 5-1/2-year low of $1,339 per tonne.
"Momentum indicators are mixed and currently struggle to confirm a confident directional outlook," said Kash Kamal, senior analyst with Sucden Financial Research.
March arabica futures settled up 0.45 cent, or 0.4 percent, at $1.1645 per lb.