Sugar futures fell on profit-taking on Friday, while arabica coffee futures and cocoa edged higher, as fund buying supported. "Its mostly profit-taking," said Romain Lathiere, Swiss-based fund manager with Diapason Commodities Management. "The impact of the euro-dollar exchange rate is putting pressure on nearly all the softs."
The dollar inched higher on Friday as data showed the United States continued to haemorrhage jobs in March, dulling recent hopes of a nascent recovery and enhancing the greenbacks safe-haven appeal. Soft commodity markets had rallied on Thursday on positive sentiment from the $1 trillion package of measures presented by the summit of G20 leaders to help revive the global economy.
"Seven consecutive down days have now been followed by three consecutive rallies and today it is highly likely that we will see an inside day of consolidation and profit taking ahead of the weekend," Fortis said in a daily market report. "The G20 communique came out as a widely predicted promise to fix global ills.
The funds all bought commodities believing that the deflationary forces of demand destruction would give way to inflationary forces with the trillion dollar G20 pill." ICE May raw sugar fell 0.27 cent to 12.79 cents per lb at 1707 GMT, while London May white sugar ended little-changed at $404.2 per tonne.
Coffee traders said arabicas edged up on investor buying driven by positive sentiment after the G20 summit wrapped up. ICE May arabicas rose 0.14 cent to $1.1830 a lb at 1712 GMT, while London May robustas ended $3 firmer at $1,564 per tonne in moderate volumes. In cocoa, dealers said fund buying supported prices. "There is not much in it as its been a dead day," one cocoa dealer said.
"We had some fund buying came into New York and the same thing in London." London July cocoa rose 23 pounds to 1,940 pounds per tonne, while ICE July cocoa rose $75 to $2,790 per tonne. Ratios for cocoa butter dropped more than 10 percent in Asia, staying at their lowest level in five years, as grinders struggled to close sales ahead of the Easter celebrations, dealers said on Friday.