Soft commodities climb across the board

Soft commodity futures vaulted across the board Friday, boosted by a US jobs report that may herald a recovering economy and consequently increased demand for such goods as sugar, coffee and cocoa. The US economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January, far outstripping analyst expectations, and the unemployment rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.3 percent, Labour Department data showed.
"It gave everybody the idea that things are getting better and pushed demand (higher)," said Jack Scoville, analyst at The Price Group. March raw sugar futures on ICE rose 0.46 cent, or almost 2 percent, to close at 23.94 cents per lb. London's March white sugar futures gained $5.30 to end at $635.10 per tonne. "We don't see the market breaking out on the upside unless weather does actually impact in a negative way and reduces that surplus," Keith Flury, an analyst at Rabobank, said. Analyst F.O. Licht said it had revised its world 2011/12 sugar production forecast upwards by 1.3 million tonnes to 175.8 million tonnes raw value, boosted by revisions to beet output.
Robustas rebounded after hitting a three-week low the previous session, as dealers kept an eye on slow exports from top producer Vietnam and there was a possibility the discount on its coffee beans could narrow or change to a premium. March robusta coffee on Liffe rose $37 or nearly 2 percent to close at $1,837 a tonne. ICE March arabicas put on 0.35 cent to end at $2.1595 a lb, above Thursday's six-week low on a second-month basis of $2.1385.
"For the moment the Vietnamese farmer can afford to be relaxed as they have no other major competition to sell robusta and the world needs their coffee," brokerage Marex Spectron said in a report. Open interest jumped 3,955 lots to 130,477 lots on Thursday from the previous session, when the spot contract dropped to a double bottom with December's low at $2.1095 per lb, and then settled higher. March cocoa on ICE rose $85 or 3.8 percent to settle at $2,300 a tonne. Liffe March cocoa futures were up 53 pounds or by 3.5 percent to end at 1,502 pounds a tonne.