Sugar and coffee futures vaulted higher on Thursday while cocoa was mixed as the softs complex consolidated while waiting for fresh macro economic news to provide jittery investors direction on its next move. "The macro (atmosphere) is helping to push us higher," Country Hedging senior Sterling Smith said of the softs complex. "What we need to see is stability to the macro (environment)."
Liffe's October white sugar futures rose $21.20 or nearly 3.0 percent to trade at $745 per tonne. Soft commodities have fared better than oil and copper markets in the recent wave of selling, underpinned by bullish fundamentals. "Supplies are still quite tight which is lending support to sugar and coffee," Fritsch said.
Nick Penney of brokerage Sucden said, "Sugar futures at times are having nothing to do with its fundamentals and more to do with risk appetite for assets, or the reduction of such risk." The market was waiting for updated crop estimates from Brazil sugar industry group Unica expected later Thursday. London's September cocoa futures fell 7 pounds to close at 1,834 pounds a tonne.
The second position cocoa market fell to a seven-month low after the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) significantly upped its forecast for a global cocoa surplus. Premiums for robusta coffee stayed at record highs in Asia, but demand was scarce and more exporters are likely to delay shipments from Vietnam because of a shortage of beans, dealers said on Thursday. London's September robusta futures went up $55 to trade at $2,188 a tonne.