Recasts, includes comments and closing prices
NEW YORK/LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Arabica coffee futures on ICE lost nearly 3% on Friday, as ample rains in coffee-producing areas in Brazil are seen improving prospects for next year’s crop.
Raw sugar futures recovered from two-week lows hit in the previous session amid improved sentiment in the wider financial markets. MKTS/GLOB
COFFEE
* December arabica coffee KCc1 settled down 5.85 cents, or 2.8%, at $2.034 per lb, having hit $2.1515 on Tuesday, just short of a seven-year peak $2.1520.
* Dealers said cumulative precipitation in coffee-growing areas in Brazil are higher than the average for October, which could boost prospects for the crop next year, which so far seemed bleak after drought and frosts.
* “It is almost a consensus that flowerings were greater than expected. Not a surprise with such amounts of rains, but the surprise comes from flowerings at frost hit areas where some
would argue it wouldn’t happen,” said a Brazil-based broker.
* “Rains are coming down now (in Brazil), maybe it will be better than expected,” said Ben Clarkson, head of Louis Dreyfus’ coffee platform during the conference organizaed by the Swiss Coffee Trade Association.
* January robusta coffee LRCc2 lost $24, or 1.1%, at $2,121 a tonne.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 settled up 0.21 cent, or 1.1%, at 19.80 cents per lb, having touched its lowest since the end of September at 19.48 on Thursday.
* A more positive financial market lifted several commodities on Friday.
* A dealer also cited reports from the Climate Prediction Center that La Nina conditions have developed and are expected to continue into the winter.
* “Brazilian mill groups are certainly watching this after the year they saw this last season. La Nina developing is no guarantee Brazilian cane will suffer, but it could also bring more rain to India and Thailand,” he said.
* December white sugar LSUc1 rose $7.10, or 1.4%, to $520.00 a tonne.
COCOA
* March London cocoa LCCc2settled down 4 pounds, or 0.2%, at 1,816 pounds per tonne.
* North American cocoa grindings, an indicator of demand for the chocolate ingredient, rose 4.3% in the third quarter from a year earlier, and just 3.6% when compared with the third quarter of pre-pandemic 2019, data showed.
* Dealers said the figures were worse than expected.
* They follow data earlier this week that showed Europe’s third-quarter cocoa grind rose 8.7% from a year earlier but only 3.5% from Q3 2019.
* December New York cocoa CCc1rose $23, or 0.9%, to $2,607 a tonne.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Maytaal Angel; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kirsten Donovan and Maju Samuel)
(([email protected]; +1 332 220 8062; Reuters Messaging: [email protected] – https://twitter.com/tx_marcelo))
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