Raw sugar on ICE Futures US dropped to a two-week low on Thursday as sell stops exaggerated losses on profit taking, returning much of the quarter's gains that lifted prices to their highest since 2014. Arabica coffee finished the quarter marginally higher and cocoa futures retreated. The Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB index, a benchmark for global commodities, saw a third straight quarterly loss.
ICE May raw sugar dropped as low as 15.31 cents per lb before finishing down 0.52 cent, or 3.3 percent, at 15.35 cents per lb, down over a penny from a 17-month high touched last week. "Someone came in to liquidate and once we got through 15.60 (cents per lb), it was, 'look out below,'" said Jack Scoville, a vice president with Price Futures Group in Chicago.
The front-month finished the quarter little-changed after jumping over 20 percent in the final three months of 2015. Investors have piled into sugar amid expectations a supply deficit due to emerge this year will be bigger than expected. Speculators' bullish bets are "close to levels where like mountaineers either you have packed extra oxygen or you turn and come back down," said Tom Kujawa, co-head of the softs department at Sucden Financial Sugar.
Traders were eyeing the start of cane harvesting in Brazil's key center-south region, where output was expected to be higher than last year. The higher demand in the world's top grower was expected to be offset by lower-than-expected output in key Asian countries. ICE May white sugar finished down $9.7, or 2.1 percent, at $444.70 per tonne.
In coffee, ICE May arabica coffee settled up 0.45 cent, or 0.35 percent, at $1.2745 per lb after dropping to technical support around $1.25. The front-month ended the quarter up less than 1 percent.
Brokers focused on the impact of prolonged dry weather on the Brazilian robusta harvest due to start soon and on rising expectations for an abundant arabica crop. ICE May robusta coffee settled down $3, or 0.20 percent, at $1,501 per tonne. ICE July London cocoa dropped to a more than five-week low of 2,126 pounds per tonne before closing down 9 pounds, or 0.4 percent, at 2,164 pounds as rains in West Africa improved crop prospects in the world's key growing region. Prices finished the first quarter down about 4 percent. ICE May New York cocoa finished down $24, or 0.81 percent, at $2,950 per tonne.
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