Coffee Rebounds on Colombia Supply Concerns; Sugar Declines; Cocoa Gains
Coffee futures gained in New York for the first time in three days on concern that production may slip. Sugar declined while cocoa rose.
Heavy rains may have harmed crops in Colombia, the fourth- largest producer, Kona Haque, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., reported yesterday. Regulators in Burundi this week said the African nation’s harvest may be 26 percent smaller than forecast because of drought. Haque said supplies won’t improve until the Central American harvests start in October.
“People are concerned about short-term supplies,” said Boyd Cruel, a senior analyst at Vision Financial Markets in Chicago. “There is also a lot of technical buying.”
Arabica coffee for December delivery climbed 2.05 cents, or 1.2 percent, to settle at $1.7985 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. at 2 p.m. in New York. The commodity has advanced 32 percent this year on concerns that demand would outpace supplies.
On London’s Liffe exchange, robusta-coffee futures for November delivery retreated $2, or 0.1 percent, to close at $1,751 a metric ton.
Raw-sugar futures for October delivery fell 0.12 cent, or 0.6 percent, to settle at 19.48 cents a pound at 2 p.m. on ICE. Last week, prices climbed 6.5 percent as importers increased purchases. Futures for white, or refined, sugar for October delivery gained 50 cents, or 0.1 percent, to settle at $558.50 a ton on Liffe, rising for the sixth straight session.
Cocoa futures for September delivery added $1 to close at at $2,892 a ton in New York. The chocolate ingredient fell as much as 0.7 percent earlier.
In London, cocoa futures for September delivery lost 6 pounds, or 0.3 percent, to 2,066 pounds ($3,222) a ton. Earlier, the price dropped to 2,063 pounds, the lowest level for a most- active contract since Nov. 19.
“We are definitely bearish” about cocoa, said Axel Rudolph, a technical strategist at Commerzbank AG in London.
To contact the reporters on this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net; Debarati Roy in New York at droy5@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page