New York cocoa futures on ICE extended losses to reach a seven-week low on Tuesday, pressured by rising weekly arrival estimates at ports in top grower Ivory Coast, while coffee and sugar prices were little changed. July New York cocoa settled down $59, or 2.3 percent, at $2,497 per tonne, after tapping a seven-week low at $2,488. Prices were pressured by the weak British pound versus the U.S dollar, as well as weekly arrivals at ports in Ivory Coast that exporters estimated above year-ago levels, traders said.
July London cocoa settled down 29 pounds, or 1.6 percent, at 1,815 pounds per tonne. July arabica coffee settled down 0.15 cent, or 0.1 percent, at $1.2025 per lb. Dealers said another drop in the Brazilian real had inspired producer hedging, since the weaker currency improves local returns on dollar-traded commodities.
Meanwhile, last week's speculative buying - partly inspired by a truckers' strike in Brazil - had largely petered out, they said. "There's a big Brazil crop coming, so that's going to weigh on the market," one dealer said. "And the industry is not rushing to buy right now." July robusta coffee settled down $11, or 0.6 percent, at $1,741 per tonne.
July raw sugar closed flat at 12.46 cents per lb. The lackluster session came after data showed on Friday that speculators had slashed their bearish bets as prices rallied. Focus remained on the truckers' strike in Brazil, which helped to lift prices to two-month highs last week and could threaten to disrupt output from Brazil, the world's biggest producer of sugar. Industry group UNICA predicted on Monday that all mills in the key state of Sao Paulo would grind to a halt in 24 hours as effects of the protests continued, even though a truckers' association said it had told drivers to return to work.
"The market seems to be taking it in stride as they know the cane is still in the fields and will be harvested," said Michael McDougall, senior vice president of sales for ED&F Man Capital Markets. August white sugar settled down $1.30, or 0.4 percent, at $350.10 per tonne. The International Sugar Organization forecast a global sugar surplus of 10.51 million tonnes in 2017-2018 (October-September).
Comments
Comments are closed.