Arabica coffee slips after hitting four-month high

NEW YORK/LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE slipped on Monday after hitting a four-month high earlier in the session, in a correction following the market's recent-run up, while raw sugar touched a one-month high.

COFFEE

* July arabica coffee settled down 0.85 cent, or 0.8%, at $1.0375 per lb after peaking at $1.0565, the highest since early February.

* Prices slipped in a minor corrective move, though the contract remained in technically overbought territory for the third straight session on the relative strength index.

* Prices jumped about 12% last week, buoyed by weather concerns in top-grower Brazil and a recovery in the country's currency.

* Ample rains in most of the sugar and coffee areas in Brazil this week are expected to bring harvest operations to a halt, but forecasts indicate precipitation will pause at the end of this week and a prolonged dry period will follow.

* "We've just started the frost season in Brazil. Any hedge fund that's been maintaining short positions will want to tread carefully over the next few weeks," Kona Haque, head of research at agricultural commodities trader ED&F Man, said.

* "The real is firming quite a bit and the whole agricultural complex has gotten a new lease of life. The money in this asset class will inevitably filter into coffee."

* July robusta coffee settled up $2, or 0.1%, at $1,480 per tonne.

SUGAR

* July raw sugar settled up 0.09 cent, or 0.7%, at 12.19 cents per lb, after touching a one-month high of 12.22.

* Prices were supported by Friday's close above the psychologically significant 12 cent level as well as speculative short-covering, dealers said.

* Speculators increased their net short position in the week to May 28 to the highest levels since September, US government data showed on Friday.

* August white sugar settled up 20 cents, or 0.1%, at $330.80 per tonne.

COCOA

* July New York cocoa settled down $49, or 2%, at $2,351 per tonne.

* Total open interest climbed on Friday for the fourth straight session to reach 273,617 contracts, its highest in nearly a year, ICE data show.

* "It seems we are getting some speculative interest on the long side of the market," said Jason Estrada, senior trader at INTL FCStone.

* July London cocoa settled down 34 pounds, or 1.9%, at 1,751 pounds per tonne.

* Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 2 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and June 2, exporters estimated on Monday, up about 13.4% from last year.