The US arabica coffee closed mostly higher with modest gains on Tuesday, consolidating in light trade after falling to a five-week low Monday, traders said. Some participants sat on the sidelines ahead of the government price-support auction for 4 million 60-kg bags of arabicas on Wednesday, in top producer Brazil, they said.
"Yesterday, we had the biggest downward move in some time and were kind of trading at new price levels here, $1.11, $1.12. We're just getting a little profit taking, very light roaster buying," one broker said.
NYBOT open-outcry July coffee fell 0.05 cent at $1.0995 a lb, while benchmark September futures inched up 0.75 cent to finish at $1.1190 a lb, moving from $1.1230 to $1.1100, marking a double bottom with the previous session. The rest ended in a range from 0.55 to 0.70 cent higher.
On the ICE New York Board of Trade electronic platform at 1:59 pm EDT (1759 GMT), September coffee was 0.80 cent higher at $1.1195 a lb. "As we get through freeze season, as we get past the Brazilian winter, we could probably see the market at $1.04/$1.06 again, so pretty negative on coffee prices," a broker said.
Brazil will see mostly dry conditions continue through Sunday, when above-normal temperatures were expected, DTN Meteorlogix said. Robusta coffee futures in London ended little changed as the market continued to consolidate following its recent rise to a nine-year high, dealers said.
The Liffe September coffee finished $3 higher at $1,891, trading from $1,881 to $1,910. NYBOT estimated 2,927 lots traded in New York open-outcry compared to the 5,065 lots officially tallied in floor trade on Monday, when 18,580 contracts traded on the ICE electronic platform. As of June 25, open interest rose 2,825 lots to 151,975 contracts.
In East Africa, prices of Kenyan coffee slipped at Tuesday's under-subscribed sale due to the poor quality beans on offer as the weekly auction moved towards the tail end of the season, exporters said. Uganda's coffee export earnings shot up 65 percent to $17.91 million in May, from $10.85 million in the same month last year, the coffee board said.