US cocoa futures retraced to settle lower on Wednesday, a day after they soared nearly 4 percent, while concerns about tight supplies kept underpinning prices, traders said. Benchmark March trickled down $25 to close at $2,626 per tonne. Wide trading range from $2,564 to $2,662.
At 12:04 pm EST (1704 GMT), March futures down $31 at $2,620 per tonne, with volume at a light 1,597 lots. ICE agricultural electronic trading will close early at 1 pm, instead of 2:45 pm, ahead of the Christmas holiday - exchange notice.
Market partially retraced Tuesday's rally as it faced technical resistance around $2,700, basis March, traders said. Open interest in the cocoa market at 115,385 lots by December 23, compared to the previous 114,305 lots, exchange data revealed.