ICE arabica coffee futures settled slightly lower on Tuesday on follow-though selling by funds as the market reacted to the first spring rains in Brazil, dealers said. "You don't see any aggressive selling, you do see some funds actually doing some buying," one trader said.
"As of now, we are seeing some people just counting that rain seems to be getting into a normal pattern starting Thursday and Friday." A dry spell in Brazil, the world's top coffee producer, had supported prices until a sell-off on Monday.
ICE benchmark December arabica in the open-outcry pit settled down 1.90 cents at $1.2815 per lb after trading from $1.2750 to $1.3100. The rest retreated 0.10 to 1.90 cents. In electronic trade, December coffee dropped 2.00 cents to $1.2805 a lb by 1:30 pm EDT (1730 GMT), moving from $1.2755 to $1.3100.
Private meteorologist Somar confirmed on Tuesday that two cold fronts were due to usher in the first substantial rains over Brazil's main coffee growing region this spring, after southern coffee plantations got more rain on Monday.
These first waves of spring rains over Brazil's dusty coffee belt will define the flowering patterns of the world's biggest coffee crop and subsequent harvest in 2008 that the market views at 45 million to 50 million 60-kg bags. DTN Meteorlogix predicted dry weather through Thursday, followed by light showers through Sunday in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais.
In London, robusta futures sank as the arabica market tumbled. Liffe's January contract ended down $42 at $1,757 per tonne after trading from $1,750 to $1,811. November was $22 lower at $1,942 after dropping $55 or 7 percent to $1,920 earlier in the session.
ICE robusta coffee December contract was down 2.60 cents at 83.50 cents per lb, in a range from 83.00 to 85.30 cents. ICE Futures electronic trade ends at 3:15 pm ICE estimated final pit volume at 2,787 lots, with traders pegging electronic volume around 21,630 by 1:15 pm.
This compares to the 2,228 lots that traded in open-outcry Monday when 29,081 lots traded on the electronic platform. Open interest fell 2,010 lots to 177,424 lots as of October 15, exchange data showed.