US arabica coffee futures mostly lower on Tuesday on speculative selling and limited buying interest as near-term ample supplies and a lack of new fundamentals weigh, dealers said.
"The selling that was really pressuring the market I think was coming more from speculators and some of the guys who got long and were looking for a bounce that never came," one trader said.
"Overall there is no confidence for people to just step in a buy." The New York Board of Trade open-outcry May slipped 0.95 cent to close at $1.0930 per lb, in dealings from $1.0880 to $1.1050. July coffee settled 1.00 cent down at $1.1215.
The rest also settled down 1.00 cent, with the exception of spot-month March that closed up $1.30 and expires on the day. On the ICE New York Board of Trade electronic platform at 2:04 pm EDT (1804 GMT), the May contract slipped 1.15 cent at $1.0910 per lb.
July was down the same at $1.1200. Looking ahead to trade on Wednesday, dealers saw support for the May contract at $1.0780 and resistance at $1.1120.
Coffee futures volume was estimated by New York Board of Trade at 6,265 lots compared with the 13,115 lots recorded on Monday, when 8,073 contracts traded electronically.
Open interest climbed by 1,462 lots to 142,031 as of March 19. In London, robusta coffee futures closed lower on pressure from origin selling out of Vietnam and Indonesia, dealers said.
Life's May contract settled down $13 at $1,506 per tonne, near the bottom of the day's range of $1,524 and $1,505. Weather, DTN Meteorlogix said top coffee grower Brazil will see scattered showers through on Sunday with near to above-normal temperatures.
In related news, a tiny lot of Kenyan AB coffee fetched $954 per 50-kg bag, the highest price for the speciality beans in nine years, industry officials said on Tuesday.
"There was a special vintage from Scoffing but a very limited lot," Etienne Debar, managing director of marketing agent Scoffing, told Reuters.
"The highest price was $1,080 nine years ago."