ICE sugar settled lower on Wednesday after creeping to a seven-week high for a second straight day, consolidating gains from the prior session's rally, while cocoa turned down but remained well within its recent range. Arabica coffee reversed lower in late dealings in a sideways move, while robusta coffee pared losses after falling to a two-month low.
"Markets are digesting yesterday's action," said Nick Gentile, chief trading official at Atlantic Capital Advisors. ICE benchmark raw sugar futures settled 0.09 cent lower at 24.42 cents a lb, after inching up to a seven-week peak of 24.65 cents. London March white sugar futures gained $2.50, or 0.4 percent, to settle at $632.20 per tonne.
Commerzbank said index investors could buy commodities that performed poorly last year to revise weightings in commodity indices back up to their original levels. "Consequently the increase in the price of cotton and sugar could continue in coming days, and other agriculturals with poor price development last year could also profit - particularly cocoa and wheat," Commerzbank said in a daily market report. A sugar futures broker said: "We're seeing some European producer selling and probably some profit-taking."
Raw sugar futures rallied more than 5 percent on Tuesday in the biggest one-day surge in 4-1/2 months, marking one of the strongest commodity kick-offs for the first trading day of 2012. ICE March cocoa futures closed down $40, or 1.9 percent, at $2,075 per tonne, while London March cocoa finished down 20 pounds, or 1.5 percent, at 1,345 pounds per tonne.
The US cocoa market, basis front month, closed 2011 down 30.5 percent, the spot contract's biggest annual drop in 12 years. ICE March arabica futures inched down 0.50 cent to close at $2.2670 per lb. London March robusta coffee futures ended down $9, or 0.5 percent, at $1,811 per tonne, after touching a two-month low of $1,787 per tonne, basis second month.