New York arabica coffee futures settled up but below session highs Thursday as speculator and some light roaster buying lifted the market before end of the month and quarter-end book-squaring pared the gains, brokers said. New York Board of Trade front-month May settled up 1.40 cents at $1.2640 per lb after trading from $1.2510 to $1.2775. July advanced 1.45 to $1.2925 cents and distant deliveries rose 0.85 to 1.45 cents.
Estimated final trading volume amounted to 16,000 contracts, down from Wednesday's official count of 17,256 lots.
At 1:40 pm EST (1645 GMT), the Reuters CRB index of 17 commodity futures was up 1.38 percent at 315.32, from Wednesday's settlement at 311.02. The index hit a 24-year high at 323.33 on March 16.