Arabica coffee hits six-week low, raw sugar also weakens

01 Aug, 2019

COFFEE

* September arabica coffee fell 1.45 cents, or 1.5%, to 98.20 cents per lb by 0956 GMT after slumping to a six-week low of 97.85 cents.

* Dealers said the market was being driven on Thursday largely by broader macroeconomic influences and bearish price charts rather than coffee fundamentals.

* The possibility that funds could rebuild a net short position remained a bearish factor.

*  "It is the beginning of the month and it wouldn't surprise me if they (funds) added some more short positions," one London dealer said.

* Fund short-covering has helped to fuel a rebound in prices during the past couple of months, but the run-up has stalled and the speculative net short had begun to rise again.

* September robusta coffee was down $14, or 1.05%, at $1,324 a tonne, with light roaster buying helping to limit losses.

* Indonesia's July robusta coffee bean exports from the Sumatra province of Lampung fell 47% from a year earlier despite posting the best result this year, local trade office data showed on Thursday.

SUGAR

* October raw sugar fell 0.07 cents, or 0.6%, to 12.14 cents per lb.

* Dealers said a stronger dollar and weaker crude oil prices were among factors weighing on the market.

* They noted that India's crop outlook had been dented by a slow start to this season's monsoon.

* "The monsoon rains have caught up to a great extent but for the 2019/20 crop the damage has already been done," broker Marex Spectron said in a report.

* October white sugar rose $1.50, or 0.5%, to $325.50 a tonne.

COCOA

* September London cocoa rose 21 pounds, or 1.15%, to 1,846 pounds a tonne, underpinned partly by sterling weakness.

* September New York cocoa was up $4, or 0.2%, at $2,349 a tonne.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

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