Sugar, coffee and cocoa slide on coronavirus lockdowns fears
- March raw sugar fell 0.15 cents, or 1%, to 14.68 cents per lb.
- March New York cocoa fell $76, or 3.1%, to $2,379 a tonne.
- January robusta coffee fell $12, or 0.9%, to $1,339 a tonne, having hit a one-month high on Tuesday.
LONDON: Sugar, coffee and cocoa slid on Wednesday amid a sea of red across financial markets as rising coronavirus cases globally triggered fears of lockdowns disrupting an already fragile economic recovery.
SUGAR
March raw sugar fell 0.15 cents, or 1%, to 14.68 cents per lb by 1146 GMT, having set an eight-month peak of 15.04 cents earlier on Tuesday.
Global equities and commodities including oil slumped while the dollar strengthened, making dollar-priced commodities costlier for non-US investors.
Dealers said that sugar could slip on the back of macroeconomic jitters but is unlikely to collapse, given ongoing uncertainty over India's sugar export subsidy policy, which could come under pressure as government coffers tighten.
December white sugar fell $5.30, or 1.3%, to $392.20 a tonne.
COCOA
March New York cocoa fell $76, or 3.1%, to $2,379 a tonne.
Dealers said the market was focused for now on falling demand amid the economic jitters. They added, however, that potential violence related to the presidential election in top producer Ivory Coast could disrupt supplies.
March London cocoa fell 38 pounds, or 2.3%, to 1,646 pounds a tonne.
COFFEE
January robusta coffee fell $12, or 0.9%, to $1,339 a tonne, having hit a one-month high on Tuesday.
One of the strongest typhoons in two decades tore into Vietnam's central coastline on Wednesday, with the storm set to trigger more heavy rains in the central region, including the Central Highlands coffee belt.
December arabica coffee fell 1.95 cents, or 1.8%, to $1.0505 per lb, having hit its lowest since late July last week at $1.0320.
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