Raw sugar falls as market consolidates after one-month peak

LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE fell on Friday after hitting a one-month high in the previous session, though sentiment towards risk assets such as the sweetener remained broadly positive after upbeat economic data from China and the United States.

SUGAR

May raw sugar fell 0.4% to 16.31 cents per lb by 1113 GMT.

Raw sugar is heading for gains of more than 5% this week on the back of a more positive macroeconomic backdrop and worries that sugar production in Brazil will struggle to reach the previously predicted 36 million tonnes.

Dealers warned, however, that the rally is largely sentiment-driven because the Brazil harvest fears have been around for some time and the market has plenty of supply coming out of India.

August white sugar fell 0.4% to $454.80 a tonne.

COFFEE

May arabica coffee rose 0.1% to $1.3285 per lb, having earlier hit its highest in a month.

Indicating improved demand, green coffee stocks at ports in the United States fell for a third consecutive month to the lowest in more than five years, the Green Coffee Association said..

Arabica is being underpinned by a looming deficit as Brazil enters an off-year in its biennial production cycle, though analysts say much of the deficit is priced in and rising ICE exchange stocks are capping gains.

May robusta coffee rose 0.3% to $1,367 a tonne.

COCOA

May New York cocoa rose 0.5% to $2,425 a tonne, helped by upbeat demand data.

North American cocoa grindings, a measure of demand, rose a greater than expected 2.05% year on year in the first quarter of 2021, according to the National Confectioners Association.

Asia's first-quarter cocoa grind rose 3.14% year on year, data from the Cocoa Association of Asia showed.

May London cocoa edged up 0.1% to 1,608 pounds a tonne, recovering from a five-month low on Monday.

Earlier this week data showed Europe's first-quarter cocoa grind fell 3% from a year earlier.