Cocoa futures fell Friday for the fourth straight day as the West African harvest crept in, although some players squaring positions ahead of a long holiday weekend kept prices off early lows, traders said.
"There was some fund buying off the low which gave us a little bounce ... and that bounce was pre-weekend book selling," one trader said.
On the New York Board of Trade, the most-active December cocoa contract settled at $1,571 a tonne, down $17, after climbing to as high as $1,588 and dropping to a near seven-week low at $1,552.
Speculator selling accelerated after the December delivery broke through a key support level of $1,568, yet the momentum was not strong enough to hold, traders said.