Arabica coffee falls while sugar and cocoa rise

NEW YORK/LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE fell on Tuesday to their third straight negative finish as traders liquidated their positions and options expiry weighed, while sugar and cocoa rose.

COFFEE

* July arabica coffee settled down 1.6 cent, or 1.6%, at 97 cents per lb, after falling to 96.85, a May 29 low.

* "We already covered a lot of shorts; there's really nothing bullish in coffee. So now we correct," said one US trader.

* A short-covering rally sent prices to a four-month high last week, but prices fell as it ran out of steam and concerns about poor weather in Brazil dissipated.

* Prices were pressured on Tuesday by the approach of the contract's first notice day as well as options expiry on Thursday, dealers said.

* Total open interest fell to a nearly four-month low of 298,881 lots on Monday, ICE data show.

* Brazil exported 2.82 million bags of arabica beans in May, up 95% year on year, while robusta shipments jumped more than 700% to 376,257 bags.

* July robusta coffee settled down $27, or 1.9%, at $1,388 per tonne.

* Top robusta producer Vietnam exported 146,220 tonnes of coffee in May. For the first five months of 2019, robusta exports were down 11.8% year on year.

SUGAR

* July raw sugar settled up 0.14 cent, or 1.1%, at 12.54 cents per lb.

* That was its strongest settle in nearly seven weeks, with the contract managing to break through strong resistance around 12.50 cents.

* "Sugar got a little boost of confidence from the May ethanol sales in Brazil" said one US trader.

* In May, Brazilian domestic ethanol sales reached an all-time high of 2.85 billion liters, industry group Unica said on Tuesday.

* Cane mills in top-grower Brazil can swing between producing ethanol and sugar with relative ease. Last month's strong ethanol data helped counterweigh data indicating that sugar production had also increased.

* August white sugar settled up $2.10, or 0.6%, at $335.80 per tonne.

COCOA

* September New York cocoa settled up $1, or 0.04%, at $2,504 per tonne, an 11-month high for the second position contract.

* September London cocoa settled up 6 pounds, or 0.3%, at 1,849 pounds per tonne and peaked at 1,862, also an 11-month high.

* "Cocoa is really relying on demand. If demand falls apart, then cocoa will fall apart," said one US trader.

* Cocoa exports from second-largest producer Ghana were at 560,378 tonnes between Oct. 1 and April 30, down 1% year on year.