Cocoa futures in New York finished with slight losses on Tuesday, rebounding off their session lows on local short-covering and industry buying, traders said.
"We had some decent support down near the lows," said one floor dealer, adding that the fund selling seemed to just "evaporate," which allowed the locals to come in and buy off the lows.
The benchmark May cocoa finished down $4 at $1,432 a tonne, just off the session peak of $1,435. The low was $1,410. July cocoa eased $1 to settle at $1,441 a tonne, after moving from $1,418 to $1,443 a tonne.
The rest of the board ended $down $2 to $3. "The market is just consolidating after on Friday's huge sell-off, holding above that $1,400 level," said Boyd Cruel, softs analyst with Alaron Trading Corporation, referring to the $99 plunge, which had futures retest their March 12 lows.
On the fundamental front, analysts said that the recent tensions in the Ivory Coast have become a "non-factor" to the markets.
"It is already late in the season, where any news from that region will not affect the movement of the cocoa beans," one said.
The world's leading cocoa grower has continued to be mired in political instability since a civil war broke out in 2002.
Although the conflict was declared over last year, rebels still control the north while much of a French-brokered peace plan has yet to be successfully implemented.
Traders said that fund rolling continued to keep pace as first notice day for the May contract approaches April 19. Open interest in the May contract was down 1,507 lots to 24,544 lots, while July rose 1,251 lots to 19,715 lots.
Volume was estimated to be 10,329 contracts on Tuesday from 9,768 lots on Monday.
CSCE is a subsidiary of the New York Board of Trade.