Open-outcry arabica coffee finished slightly lower on Monday because of selling related to contract rollover and chart-based sales, and as investors took a breather after the previous session's sharp gains. "Today's decline was almost exclusively spread-related. Mostly day-trader and local participation were seen in the marketplace," one US coffee analyst said.
"All in all, the market remains in a consolidation mode as we approached the first-notice day on August 23." New York Board of Trade open-outcry benchmark December settled down 0.65 cent at $1.1885 a lb., in a trading ranges from $1.1825 to $1.2000. The rest retreated 0.55 to 0.70 cent. On the ICE-NYBOT electronic platform at 2:17 pm EDT (1817 GMT), December was down 0.60 cent at $1.189 a lb., trading from $1.183 to $1.204.
The rest ranged from 0.30 to 1.05 cents lower. The coffee analyst said December futures turned south after running into a key technical resistance level at Monday's session-high of $1.20. He said arbitrage appeared at session highs, and that also helped push prices lower. Positions were still rolling out of NYBOT September futures into December ahead of the front-month's first notice day August 23.
Other analysts said coffee futures were beginning to steady after their recent fall to a three-week low as industry interest began perking up. "We're beginning to see some interest from roasters, especially from people coming back from holidays in Europe.
Coffee normally goes down to a low in August and then starts coming back as people doing their Christmas buying begin filtering back," a long-time broker said. On the weather front, mudslides in the mountains of Jamaica caused by Hurricane Dean may delay the harvest of the island's premiere Blue Mountain coffee prized by connoisseurs, coffee trade sources said on Monday.
In London, robusta coffee futures ended up after hitting a 2-1/2-month low on Friday. Liffe November contract closed up $19 at $1,700 per tonne after trading from $1,682 to $1,717. NYBOT estimated final open-outcry coffee volume at 3,751 lots, compared to the 4,281 contracts that traded in the pit on Friday. Open interest was down 4,056 lots at 158,885 contracts as of August 17, NYBOT data showed.