Jan 4 (Reuters) – Arabica coffee on ICE recovered on Tuesday after hitting a 1-1/2 month low in the prior session, while raw sugar also gained as the wider financial markets shrugged off worries the Omicron coronavirus variant could choke the global economic recovery. MKTS/GLOB
COFFEE
* March arabica coffee KCc1 was up 0.7% to $2.2485 per lb at 1220 GMT, recovering from Monday’s 1-1/2 month low. Arabica closed last year up 76%.
* Dealers said arabica, the biggest gainer among all commonly traded commodities last year, was likely to fall next week due to fund index rebalancing.
* They estimate the Bloomberg Commodity Index, for example, needs to sell roughly 1% of its coffee portfolio to meet its coffee allocation target for this year. This equals about 13,000 lots of selling, they said.
* Honduran coffee exports almost doubled in December versus a year earlier to reach 386,806 60-kg bags, data showed.
* March robusta coffee LRCc2 fell 0.8% to $2,350 a tonne. The contract hit a 10-year high of $2,384 last Thursday, and ended last year up 71%.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 rose 0.3% to 18.80 cents per lb. The contract ended 2021 up 21.9% but has since struggled.
* Dealers said sugar’s upside was limited for now as lacklustre demand meets adequate supply and improved prospects for the next crop from top producer Brazil.
* Brazil has seen widespread rains in the centre-south region of late.
* Indian sugar mills have produced 11.56 million tonnes of sugar in the first three months of 2021/22 marketing year, up nearly 4.3% from the same period a year earlier.
* March white sugar LSUc1 rose 0.3% to $495.70 a tonne.
COCOA
* March New York cocoa CCc1 fell 0.1% to $2,496 a tonne. The contract ended 2021 down just over 3%, bucking the trend in sugar and coffee.
* Dealers said the decrease in New York cocoa’s open interest in the last few days suggested speculators had further liquidated their long positions.
* March London cocoa LCCc1 fell 0.4% to 1,695 pounds per tonne.
(Reporting by Maytaal Angel Editing by Mark Potter)
(([email protected](00442075429105)(Reuters Messaging: [email protected]) ))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
www.nasdaq.com