US cocoa futures settled little changed in sideways trade on Tuesday, with position rolling out of July into September ahead of the front-month's first notice day on June 21 the dominant feature, traders said.
"Before first notice day, that's what was the main feature, people rolling positions," one dealer said. The New York Board of Trade spot-month July contract finished down $3 at $1,836, in a trading band from $1,827 to $1,849.
Benchmark September futures closed $1 lower at $1,866, while the rest finished from flat to $10 lower. The September contract trading on the IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic platform was $2 lower at $1,865, at 12:45 pm, while the rest ranged from $1 to $6 lower.
Electronic trading ends at 3:15 pm London cocoa futures finished mildly lower with Life's September cocoa futures contract ending down 6 pounds at 1,026 pounds, trading from 1,023 to 1,041. NYBOT estimated open-outcry volume around 11:00 am EDT at 2,076 lots, compared with the 3,042 contracts that traded in open-outcry on Monday, when 31,876 contracts traded on the ICE electronic platform.
Open interest edged up 600 lots to 147,551 as of June 11. In the world's second-biggest cocoa producer, purchases declared by private buyers to Ghana's Cookbook industry regulator reached 567,908 tonnes between October 13 and May 24, an industry source said on Tuesday. That compared with 594,089 tonnes declared in the first 32 weeks of last season's main crop, which began on October 7, 2005.