New York cocoa jumps to four-year peak

US outcry cocoa futures jumped in the session to settle higher on Friday on news of an attack on the plane of Ivory Coast's prime minister, dealers said. "First, there were some options in London that were expiring today," one trader said. "I think the short have those calls needed to cover and that pushed the futures market.
"Then we had the rockets being fired at the Prime Minister in Ivory Coast's plane. I think that pushed it the rest of the way." Ivory Coast Prime Minister Gallium Soro escaped unhurt when a rocket hit his plane on arrival at the rebel stronghold of Bounce on Friday, but three others were killed, witnesses said.
The New York Board of Trade benchmark September contract jumped $52 to settle at $2,062 per tonne, trading in a band of $2,044 to $2,069. It reached a new 4-1/4-year high for the fourth day in a row, on a second month basis. A technical gap was left between $2,030 and $2,044.
The front-month July contract also rose $52 to $2,054, while the rest were up $52 to $55. The September contract on the IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic platform was $45 higher at $2,055, at 12:50 pm EDT (1650 GMT), trading from $2,005 to $2,068.
The rest were up $46 to $50. Electronic trading ends at 3:15 pm in London, the Liffe September contract surged 25 pounds to settle at 1,113 pounds per tonne. It traded in a range from 1,086 pounds to 1,118 pounds, a new 4-year high. The rest settled 21 to 28 pounds higher. NYBOT estimated outcry volume around noon at 1,863 lots, compared with the 1,108 contracts that traded in outcry on Thursday, when 9,269 contracts traded on the ICE electronic platform.
Meanwhile, commodities outclassed bonds and lagged stocks only slightly in the first half of the year, showing they still offered a place for investors, although oil and metals prices were off last year's peaks.
Three of the world's leading commodity futures indexes which give pension funds, endowments and wealthy individuals access to products like crude oil, copper, gold and corn averaged returns of 5.5 percent for the first six months as they entered final trading hours for June on Friday.