LONDON: White sugar futures fell to a four-week low on Monday as weakening charts and an expected supply glut weighed, while London cocoa eased as the market shrugged off upbeat European fourth-quarter grind data.
New York soft commodities markets were closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday and will reopen on Tuesday.
SUGAR
March white sugar was down $4.60, or 1.2 percent, at $370.40 a tonne by 1141 GMT, having fallen as low as $369.10, the weakest level for the front month since Dec. 19.
This extended losses from Friday, with dealers pointing to persistent pressure from bearish chart signals and worries about a global supply glut, partly on expectations for record Thai production.
"The Thai harvest is off to a strong start, with high sugar levels," Green Pool said in a weekly market update.
Technically, momentum was on the downside, dealers said, with prices remaining below the 100-day moving average and slipping below Friday's low.
Sentiment was also soured by the failure of widely expected index-fund rebalancing to boost prices, with dealers saying the buying is now wrapped up.
Speculators raised their net long position in white sugar by 4,939 lots to 7,837 lots as of Jan. 9, exchange data showed.
However, dealers said market participants are likely to have resumed selling the commodity later in the week as support collapsed.
"The global sugar market is set to see a fairly sizeable surplus over the 2017/18 season, which means the upside in the spec position is likely limited," ING said in a market note.
COCOA
March London cocoa slipped by 2 pounds, or 0.14 percent, to 1,378 pounds a tonne.
Europe's fourth-quarter cocoa grind increased by 4.4 percent from the same period last year to 353,286 tonnes, the European Cocoa Association said on Monday.
This fell within dealer expectations for a 2-5 percent increase but marked the highest fourth-quarter grinding in ECA data that goes back to 1999.
However, sentiment has been dampened recently by concerns about ample global supplies amid good weather and strong port arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast.
While Ivorian arrivals for the season are still running behind last year, they totalled 72,000 tonnes between Jan. 8 and Jan. 14. That compares with 66,000 tonnes during the same period last year.
COFFEE
March robusta coffee was unchanged at $1,728 a tonne.
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