US cocoa futures finished lower on Tuesday, retracing after recent gains and weighed by London's weak market and origin selling, traders said. "We followed London down completely, there's just no buying. There's good hedging coming out of Indonesia. There's nothing coming out of West Africa of any consequence," one trader said.
The New York Board of Trade spot-month July contract fell $11 to settle near the session low at $1,948, after trading in a band from $1,947 to $1,970. Benchmark September futures slipped $14 to $1,950, in dealings from $1,938 to $1,970. The rest ended from $14 to $16 lower. The September contract trading on the IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic platform was $15 lower at $1,949, at 12:50 pm, while the rest settled down from $4 to $13.
Electronic trading ends at 3:15 pm Life's benchmark September cocoa futures contract fell 8 pounds, closing at 1,071 pounds after trades ranged from 1,061 pounds to 1,087 pounds, a high dating back to May 24.
NYBOT estimated open-outcry volume around noon at light 913 lots, compared with the 1,136 contracts that traded in open-outcry on Monday, when 7,783 contracts traded on the ICE electronic platform.
Open interest fell 1,277 lots to 141,829 as of June 18. Meanwhile in the top producer, cocoa farmgate prices in Ivory Coast's main growing areas remained well above the recommended guideline price of 400 CFA per kg in the week of June 11-17, Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) data showed on Tuesday.
Price levels indicated buyers were still competing for cocoa beans from the bush, which were not available in the quantities they required as a result of a mediocre April-September mid crop hit by dry, hot weather this year. Cameroon's mid-crop harvest looks promising in the central African country's two main production regions after a spell of weather conducive to good pod development, farmers and buyers told Reuters.