ICE raw sugar sinks on chart resistance, Brazil harvest

Raw sugar futures finished lower on Monday as a short-covering rally dried up, and arabica coffee on ICE Futures US retreated as London cocoa prices edged up from a two-week low in a day of choppy trade. May raw sugar settled down 0.22 cent, or 1.31 percent, at 16.54 cents per lb, near the session's fresh 10-month low of 16.47 cents.
-- Prices hit technical resistance around the 17.11-cent level and were further weighed by the start of the Brazil harvest this month, said Michael McDougall, director of commodities for Societe Generale in New York.
Speculators continued to reduce a bullish position in raw sugar contracts on ICE in the week to March 28, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.
"Global sugar weather this calendar year to date has been benign, encouraging an assumption that the global sugar production potential will be realised. But this is far from certain," Tropical Research Services said in a market note.
May white sugar finished down $3.80, or 0.80 percent, at $473.40 per tonne.
May London cocoa settled up 10 pounds, or 0.60 percent, at 1,689 pounds per tonne after dipping to a two-week low of 1,650 pounds.
Dealers said the market was back on the defensive after its recent rally which was fuelled largely by short covering from speculators.
"The (technical) indicators have turned to favour the downside," Sucden Financial analyst Geordie Wilkes said in a market note.
Port arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast remained well ahead of last year's pace with a large global surplus widely expected in the current 2016/17 season.
May New York cocoa finished down $12, or 0.57 percent, at $2,107 per tonne.
Good rain and sun last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions will improve the size and quality of the April-to-September cocoa mid-crop although dry weather persisted in certain areas of the south and east, farmers said.
May arabica coffee settled down 1.45 cent, or 1.04 percent, at $1.3785 per lb, not far from last week's eight-week low of $1.3620.
New York May coffee futures were seen as neutral in the range of $1.3820 to $1.4025 per lb. May robusta finished $1, or 0.05 percent, lower at $2,150 a tonne.