Updates with closing prices, adds comments
NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Sugar, coffee and cocoa futures all ended down on Monday as the dollar soared and global equities skidded on concerns about tensions along Ukraine’s border with Russia, prompting a flight to safety amongst speculators. MKTS/GLOBFRX/
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.09 cent, or 0.5%, at 18.81 cents per lb, having hit a three-week high of 19.29 cents on Thursday.
* “It’s a flight to safety, to the dollar, (which is) not good for commodities,” said a dealer.
* A strong dollar makes dollar-priced commodities like sugar costlier for non-U.S. investors.
* Looking ahead, though, sugar is seen underpinned by tight supplies and by higher energy prices, which could prompt Brazilian plants to divert production to ethanol and away from sugar.
* March white sugar LSUc1 fell $0.90, or 0.2%, to $504.50 a tonne.
COFFEE
* March arabica coffee KCc1 settled down 4.95 cents, or 2.1%, at $2.3295 per lb, having hit a two week low of $2.3045.
* It was the third consecutive loss for arabica amid an overall selloff in agricultural commodities by investors, but also with reports of positive development for the coffee crop in Brazil.
* Rains in January over Brazilian coffee areas are above the 10-year average for the period, said consultancy Pharos, adding that the crop might not be as bad as many had projected after the frosts and the drought last year.
* March robusta coffee LRCc2 fell $16, or 0.7%, to $2,197 a tonne, nearing a two-month low of $2,184 hit last week.
COCOA
* March New York cocoa CCc1 settled down $83, or 3.2%, at $2,493 a tonne, a two-week low.
* March London cocoa LCCc1 fell 39 pounds, or 2.2%, to 1,698 pounds per tonne.
* Speculators switched to a net long position in New York cocoa of 4,729 contracts in the week to Jan. 18, adding 15,051 contracts, data showed.
* North American cocoa grindings, a measure of demand, unexpectedly fell 1.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2021, though there continues to be demand growth overall with European and Asian fourth-quarter grinds both rising.
* Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast fell 0.9% from Oct. 1 to Jan. 23 versus the same period a year ago, exporters estimated. .
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Maytaal Angel; Editing by Mark Potter and Vinay Dwivedi)
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