Cocoa consolidates, sugar and coffee edge higher

New York cocoa futures were little changed on Monday, with the market's rebound from last week's 9-1/2 year low appearing to have run out of steam, while raw sugar and coffee edged higher. May New York cocoa rose $1, or 0.05 percent, to $1,956 a tonne by 1449 GMT.
Dealers said the market was consolidating after rebounding late last week from a 9-1/2 year low of $1,869 set on Thursday.
Speculators' bearish stance in cocoa contracts increased sharply to a record on ICE Futures US in the week to Feb. 28, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday.
Dealers said that holders of shorts appeared under little pressure to cover positons at the moment, given plentiful supplies and a large global surplus expected for the 2016/17 season.
"It is difficult to see what the trigger would be (for a short-covering rally) while there is so much unsold
cocoa out there," one dealer said.
There were some emerging concerns about dry weather in top grower Ivory Coast, though a record crop is still expected.
Dry weather and strong heat in some of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-growing regions are raising concerns about the size and quality of the cocoa mid-crop, farmers said on Monday, following forecasts for record production.
Many traders were away from their desks to attend the CMAA International Cocoa Conference in Miami.
May London cocoa was down 7 pounds at 1,598 pounds a tonne.
May raw sugar rose 0.18 cents, or 0.9 percent, to 19.70 cents a lb.
The market remained underpinned by signs that production in India could be below 20 million tonnes,
with imports likely at some stage.
Tropical Research Services (TRS) said in a report on Monday that India's coastal refineries have been stocking up and much of any initial import programme would be met from stocks and existing bookings.
"Sugar imports by the port-based coastal refiners are running at a stronger pace than last year while the pace of exports is in line with last year," TRS said.
May white sugar was up $4.10, or 0.8 percent, at $546 a tonne.
May robusta was up $6, or 0.3 percent, at $2,200 a tonne.
Dealers said that physical selling in top producer Vietnam had helped to stall last week's robusta rally while speculators have also been trimming long positions. May arabica rose 0.1 percent to $1.4340 per lb.