Cocoa futures rose sharply on Thursday, boosted partly by fund short-covering, while raw sugar was little changed and coffee prices weakened slightly. July New York cocoa was up $65, or 3.31 percent, at $2,028 a tonne at 1307 GMT after touching $2,053. "There were some buy stops triggered above $2,020, but now it is coming back into the range," one dealer said, adding that the market would need some more constructive news on fundamentals to sustain a significant advance.
The July contract is towards the upper end of the $1,867 to $2,088 range that has held for the past three weeks. Dealers said that funds had begun to roll forward short positions out of July into September while producers appeared well sold so were not capping rallies. July London cocoa was up 52 pounds, or 3.4 percent, at 1,582 pounds a tonne.
July raw sugar was off by 0.01 cents, or 0.1 percent, at 14.13 cents per lb, having hit a one-week high of 14.39 cents. Dealers said the market was struggling to recover from a sharp decline in prices in late May and early June. Physical buyers remained largely sidelined, however, expecting the market to resume its downtrend once it is no longer technically oversold.
Dealers said that funds had begun to roll forward positions out of July into October on Wednesday, adding significantly to volume. August white sugar fell $0.80, or 0.19 percent, to $417.40 a tonne. July arabica coffee fell by 0.35 cents, or 0.28 percent, to $1.2540 per lb. Dealers said the market is still monitoring forecasts for colder weather in Brazil, though nearby supplies were ample. July robusta was off $5, or 0.25 percent, at $1,967 a tonne.
Comments
Comments are closed.