ICE arabica coffee futures settled quietly lower on Wednesday on two-sided interest by short-term speculators as the market sought direction in sideways dealings, traders said. "(They are) not necessarily day traders but people who will buy it today and sell it on Friday. They're not going to hold onto it for long," one trader said about the day's speculators.
The key ICE May arabica coffee contract settled down 0.45 cent at $1.2865 per lb, spanning $1.2835 to $1.3145 cents. The market trades until 3:15 pm EDT (1915). The new closing call time is 1:28 to 1:30 pm. By 2:48 pm, the May contract was up 0.45 cent at $1.2955.
The rest inched 0.45 to 1.80 cents higher. Position rolling out of May into July continued ahead of the front-month's first notice day April 22, but the volume was lighter than in previous sessions, traders said. Traders pegged support for May at $1.25 and resistance at $1.40.
On the London International Financial Futures Exchange (Liffe), robusta coffee futures finished weak on investor selling. The Liffe July contract finished down $36 weaker at $2,231 a tonne. On Tuesday, 24,318 arabica futures contracts traded on ICE while open interest dropped by 1,316 lots at 160,969 lots.