US cocoa futures ended up but off their session highs Wednesday as early speculative buying was met with scale-up hedge sales that held prices in a quiet trading range, traders said.
"There was some follow-through spec buying this morning, which began yesterday with the delays in Ivory Coast exports, but we ran up into some selling by hedgers up at the top of the range today," said one broker.
The New York Board of Trade's active December cocoa contract ended the day up $6 at $1,392 a tonne, after dealing from $1,386 to $1,405.
March cocoa gained $7 at $1,429 and back months settled $5 to $7 higher.