US arabica coffee futures drifted to a softer close on Monday, after rebounding from a near five-month trough, amid speculative interest seen on both sides of the market, traders said.
"It was a relatively slow day. We extended the recent lows, but then bounced back with some short covering. It looks like this market is still consolidating lower, but we could see some bottom buying move in and maybe we can rally from here," said one New York-based coffee dealer. "It was mostly speculative business today selling it in the day, and then turning around and covering into the close," he added.
The NYBOT open-outcry May fell 0.70 cent to close at $1.1180 per lb. Trading ranged from $1.1250 to $1.1110, its cheapest price since October 23. July coffee ended down 0.65 cent at $1.1470, and back months settled with losses ranging from 0.65 to 0.80 cent.
On the ICE New York Board of Trade electronic platform at 1:18 pm EDT (1718 GMT), May was off 0.30 cent at $1.1220 per lb. July lost 0.40 cent at $1.1495. NYBOT estimated final coffee futures volume at only 4,148 lots, against on Friday's official count at 14,901.
Open interest grew 1,479 lots to 135,67 as of March 9. In the options pit, there were 7,932 lots in call volume, while 5,311 puts were traded. Open-outcry trading hours for coffee futures and options contracts will be extended to 8:30 am Eastern time (1230 GMT) to 12:30 pm (1630 GMT), from 9:15 am to 12:30 pm, effective March 16, NYBOT announced on Friday.
In London, robusta coffee futures ended little changed in light volume. The Liffe May contract closed up $1 at $1,525 per tonne, near the middle of its session range between $1,513 and $1,534 a tonne. On the weather front, coffee farms will remain mainly dry this week, but there are signs of a weather change and showers are forecast in Paranoia and Sao Paulo states, private meteorologists Somar said on Monday.
Further north, the important coffee regions of Megan, south Minas and the Minas Corrode will have very little rain. In its 10-day outlook, Somar said that rain will return to Brazil's main coffee belt between March 17 and 21 ending a dry spell since March.