New York cocoa futures bounce up from 5-week low

NEW YORK: New York cocoa futures on ICE turned higher on chart-based buying on Monday after falling to a five-week low as expectations for a global surplus weighed on the market.

London markets were closed for the Easter holiday and were set to reopen on Tuesday.

COCOA

July New York cocoa settled up $12, or 0.6 percent, at $1,927 per tonne, after falling to $1,892, the lowest for the second-position contract since March 10.

"We're still in a fundamentally bearish market," said Nick Gentile, managing partner of commodity trading advisor NickJen Capital.

The rebound from the five-week low was "just a function of the autoflow," Gentile said.

The market awaited North American cocoa grind data for the first quarter of 2017, scheduled for release Thursday after the market closes.

Market expectations were flat to 2 percent higher compared with the first quarter of 2016, when bean processing in the United States, Canada and Mexico fell to the lowest in nearly four years.

COFFEE

July arabica coffee rose 1.75 cent, or 1.2 percent, at $1.43 per lb by 12:26 p.m. EDT (1626 GMT).

Arabica futures remained rangebound below the 50-day moving average as the market awaited harvest to begin later this month in top coffee grower Brazil.

Coffee importer Wolthers Douque said in a note late Thursday, just ahead of the Good Friday holiday, that on a Brazilian crop tour of more than 10 farms and several cooperatives it saw many trees underproducing and that a lot of pruning had been done.

"Judging by what we saw and heard from producers, numbers for the next Brazilian crop are expected to be around 48-49 million bags," the company note said, adding this small harvest puts the market in a delicate situation.

The market found support in the firm Brazilian real against the dollar, though volume was modest as several dealers were out for the holiday, traders said.

SUGAR

July raw sugar was flat at 16.57 cents per lb at 12:26 p.m.

"There is little further downside for sugar prices in the coming weeks after prices tumbled by over 20 percent over February and March. We see prices range-trading on a three-to-six month horizon and have revised down our price forecast for this year from 19.30 cents/lb to 18 cents/lb," said BMI Research in a note.