US cocoa futures settled higher on Friday, with a boost from investor buying and a rallying crude oil market as the dollar fell, dealers said. "There's spec buying into trade and arbitrage selling," one cocoa trader said. The key ICE July cocoa contract settled $32 higher at $2,741 per tonne, spanning $2,705 to $2,758.
The market trades until 3:15 pm EDT (1915 GMT). By 12:53 pm, the July contract was up $31 at $2,740 per tonne. The rest were up from $12 to $30, with the exception May, which was up $100 amid light open interest. Volume, however, was light, with a total of nearly 8,600 lots trading by 12:30 pm.
US crude futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange surged to a record high above $126 a barrel on fund buying and soaring distillate prices. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index, which tracks prices of 19 commodity futures, including cocoa, also hit a record high for the second straight day.
London cocoa also finished strong, with benchmark July closing 16 pounds higher at 1,499 pounds per tonne, trading from 1,475 to 1,512 pounds. ICE volume remained light on Thursday, with 9,504 cocoa futures contracts trading, while open interest rose 2,065 lots to 143,913 lots, exchange data said.