Raw sugar hits six-week low, cocoa and coffee down

15 Jul, 2020

LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE slid to a six-week low on Tuesday while cocoa and coffee also fell, dragged down by weakness in crude oil and global equity markets.

October raw sugar slipped 0.3 cents, or 2.6%, to 11.28 cents per lb by 1426 GMT after dipping to a six-week low of 11.27 cents.

Weakness in energy markets can boost sugar production in the centre-south of Brazil where it can be used either to make the sweetener or biofuel ethanol.

"The rumblings in the oil market are making the (sugar) market a little nervous," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said in a note.

August white sugar fell $2.30, or 0.7%, to $332.80 a tonne.

September London cocoa fell 11 pounds, or 0.7%, to 1,561 pounds per tonne, drifting back down towards a 20-month low of 1,545 pounds set last week.

Dealers said weak demand and a generally favourable outlook for the upcoming 2020/21 harvest in top grower Ivory Coast were keeping the market on the defensive.

Most of Ivory Coast's cocoa growing regions received below-average rainfall last week but good soil moisture content contributed to a favourable outlook for the upcoming main crop, farmers said on Monday.

September New York cocoa slid $26, or 1.2%, to $2,167 a tonne.

September arabica coffee fell 1.3 cents, or 1.3%, to 97.35 cents per lb.

Commerzbank technical analyst Axel Rudolph said in a note that the failure to break resistance around the 55-day moving average earlier this month had put the market on a downward trajectory with support seen around the contract's June low of 94.55 cents. September robusta coffee fell $2, or 0.2%, to $1,222 a tonne.

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