US open-outcry cocoa futures settled lower on Thursday as profit-taking drove prices down from 4-1/4-year highs reached this week, dealers said. "I think the fundamentals, short term, are friendly, with the poor midcrop," the trader added. "The differentials (are) going up and I think this market is going to work higher." The trader placed resistance at $2,000 per tonne.
The New York Board of Trade benchmark September contract fell $12 to settle at $2,010. It traded from $2,005 to $2,030, a new 4-1/4-year high for the third day in a row.
The front-month July contract was down $20 at $2,002, while the rest ranged from $12 to $15 lower. The September contract on the IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic platform was down $15 at $2,007 at 12:36 pm (1636 GMT), ranging from $1,999 to $2,030.
The rest ranged from $17 lower to $4 higher. Electronic trading ends at 3:15 pm. In London, the Liffe September contract dropped 9 pounds to settle at 1,088 pounds per tonne, in a range from 1,085 pounds to 1,103 pounds. The rest settled from 17 pounds lower to 2 pounds higher. NYBOT estimated open-outcry volume around noon at 2,046 lots, compared with 1,827 contracts traded in open outcry on Wednesday, when 8,380 contracts traded on the ICE electronic platform.
Cocoa prices set four-year highs in London and New York this week on a global supply deficit, but may fall back later this year as crops, hit by drought, recover. Investment bank Forties forecast in a report on Thursday that the cocoa market would move to a surplus of 98,000 tonnes in 2007/08, from a deficit of 236,000 tonnes in 2006/07.
In Europe, moves by British authorities to possibly publish reports on speculative commodity futures positions will make markets more open, boost price efficiency and limit potential for market abuse, Britain's Financial Services Authority said on Thursday. The FSA said it was looking to publish reports on outstanding speculative positions in commodity futures similar to those published by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission every week.
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