Updates with closing prices and comments
NEW YORK/LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Robusta coffee futures closed up on Friday as the market consolidated below a 4-1/2 year high set earlier this week, while sugar and cocoa prices fell.
COFFEE
* January robusta coffee LRCc2 settled up $37, or 1.7%, at $2,214 a tonne. The benchmark second month set a 4-1/2 year high of $2,278 earlier this week.
* Dealers said the market’s failure to breach resistance around $2,279, a peak set in February 2017, had prompted a short-term setback, but fundamentals remained supportive with supplies tightened by a slowdown in exports from top robusta producer Vietnam.
* Vietnam’s coffee exports in the first 10 months of this year are expected to show a 5.1% drop from a year earlier to 1.27 million tonnes.
* December arabica coffee KCc1 settled up 4 cents, or 2.0%, at $2.0395 per lb, as uncertainty about the next Brazil crop continues to underpin the market.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 fell 0.35 cent, or 1.8%, at 19.27 cents per lb.
* Dealers said higher gasoline prices in Brazil had helped to support the market this week, potentially increasing the amount of cane used to produce ethanol rather than sugar.
* The rally in the energy sector has, however, lost momentum towards the end of the week, dragging sugar prices lower, while Brazil rains continued to improve the outlook for next year which is seen reducing funds’ interest.
* “Fundamentally, strong rains in Brazil are positive for the country’s cane crop and are ultimately bearish on price. This would explain the opening of new shorts as well as the closure of longs,” food trader and supply chain services provider Czarnikow said in a note.
* December white sugar LSUc1 fell $6.50, or 1.3%, at $509.10 a tonne.
COCOA
* March London cocoa LCCc2 settled down 27 pounds, or 1.5%, to 1,718 pounds per tonne after dipping to a low of 1,714 pounds – the weakest level for the benchmark second month since Aug. 9.
* Dealers said the market was weighed by the prospect of a large crop this year in top producer Ivory Coast and uncertainty about whether a recent pick-up in demand will be sustained.
* December New York cocoa CCc1 fell $27, or 1.1%, to $2,544 a tonne.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Nigel Hunt Editing by David Holmes, Frances Kerry and Sandra Maler)
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