LONDON: New York cocoa futures slipped on Monday as speculative buying waned after data showing that funds had raised their bullish bets to 2015 highs, while raw sugar edged higher ahead of expiry.
COCOA
July New York cocoa was down $22, or 0.8 percent, at $2,809 a tonne by 1117 GMT, after slipping to a session low of $2,793.
Dealers noted buying momentum had weakened as speculative activity had stalled, although technical signals remained positive.
“It may be a momentum issue but it’s still a fairly steady technical market,” said one dealer. “No way could you describe it as being overdone to the upside yet.”
The slowdown in buying followed government data on Friday showing speculators raised their net long position in the market to a 2015 high in the week to April 24.
While market participants had expected an increase in the net long, the data signalled there may potentially be limited room for further buying.
“These funds are long and got a little bit longer as expected,” the dealer said. “But how long is too long? That’s the big question mark.”
July London cocoa was unchanged at 1,892 pounds a tonne.
New York’s rare premium over London weakened further, after surging to a new record this month.
SUGAR
May raw sugar rose 0.08 cents, or 0.7 percent, to 11.30 cents per lb, after slipping last week to its lowest since September 2015.
The market was expecting a delivery of less than 1 million tonnes against the May contract, which expires on Monday, with supplies mostly coming from Brazil, Sucden Financial said in a market note.
August white sugar rose $0.40, or 0.1 percent, to $325.50 a tonne.
The European Union exported 2.06 million tonnes of sugar between October and April, up from 550,000 tonnes over the same period last season, European Commission figures showed.
While the sharp increase reflects the bloc’s removal of production quotas at the start of the season, month-on-month exports have started to slow more recently.
“This is likely a result of EU physical longs unwilling to sell in the current low price environment,” ING said in an update.
COFFEE
July arabica coffee fell 0.35 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $1.2205 per lb.
July robusta coffee rose $3, or 0.2 percent, to $1,765 a tonne.
Vietnam’s coffee exports for the January-April period rose an estimated 17.7 percent from the same period a year ago, government data showed.
Source: Brecorder
