Soft commodity futures were choppy Wednesday, with raw sugar touching a 30-year top before closing lower on the day as players tweaked positions ahead of the New Year holiday, analysts said. Arabica coffee futures edged higher in see-saw trade while remaining close to last week's 13-1/2-year peak, supported by limited availability of high-quality beans from Colombia. Cocoa was steady with the focus on the power struggle in No. 1 world producer Ivory Coast.
New York's March raw sugar contract fell 0.56 cent to end at 33.83 cents per lb, having hit a 30-year intra-day top at 34.77 cents. The volume of business in raw sugar was light. Total raw sugar contracts traded stood at about 45,300 lots, about 50 percent below the 30-day average, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
The key March cocoa contract in New York closed unchanged at $3,065 per tonne. The March arabica coffee contract on ICE Futures US gained 0.35 cent to conclude at $2.3965 per lb, with volume of 4,700 lots, which is around 70 percent below the 30-day average, according to Thomson Reuters figures.