Most soft commodity markets staged a recovery on Wednesday but investors remained skittish about the nuclear crisis in Japan, already reeling from a killer quake and tsunami. Workers withdrew briefly from Japan's stricken plant because of surging radiation levels, and a helicopter failed to drop water on the most troubled reactor.
"We have seen ags (agricultural commodities) moving up across the board but it's too early to say we're out of the woods. Macroeconomic sentiment remains fragile," said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, analyst at
New York's May cocoa contract fell $40 to finish at $3,215 per tonne. On Tuesday, the May contract skidded $134 to end at $3,255 a tonne, its lowest finish since February 7. The May arabica coffee contract rose 2.40 cents to end at $2.6535 a lb. New York's May raw sugar contract on ICE Futures US rose 0.20 cent to trade at 25.85 cents per lb.