US cocoa futures ended a choppy session at a new three-month low Thursday, with speculators and funds dominating activity while manufacturers held to the sidelines, traders said.
"It's all been fund and speculative selling, and we didn't see that much origin today," one trader said. Short-covering gave the market a bounce, although trading volumes were thin, he said.
On the New York Board of Trade, the most-active December cocoa fell $15 to settle at $1,391 a tonne, near the bottom of a $1,390-$1,408 trading range. It was December's lowest settlement since July 6, when it ended at $1,352.
March 2005 slid $14 to $1,410, while distant futures declined $14 to $15. NYBOT's estimated cocoa futures volume just before the market close was 7,728 lots, compared with 7,169 lots the previous session.