Arabica coffee falls, raw sugar slips

NEW YORK/LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE fell on Monday, as a weak Brazilian currency and upcoming options expiry pressured the market, while sugar prices were lower as a forecast by the International Sugar Organization reinforced oversupply concerns.

COFFEE

* July arabica coffee settled down 2.35 cents, or 2.3%, at 98.60 cents per lb after trading as low as 98.00.

* Prices had hit a four-month high early last week before plunging as a short-covering rally on the back of weather concerns in top-grower Brazil started to run out of steam.

* Still, total open interest fell on Friday to 310,755 lots, its lowest since late February, ICE data show.

* Dissipating concerns about bad Brazilian weather as well as a weaker currency in the country - which encourages producer selling - pressured prices on Monday, dealers said.

* July options expire on Thursday, which was also pressuring the market, dealers said.

* July robusta coffee settled down $15, or 1.1%, at $1,415 per tonne.

SUGAR

* July raw sugar settled down 0.10 cent, or 0.8%, at 12.40 cents per lb, after peaking at 12.49.

* The 12.50 level continues to act as resistance for the market, with producer selling accelerating above it.

* Sugar price falls were limited, however, as funds continued to cover shorts, dealers said.

* Sugar production in India's western state of Maharashtra, the country's second-biggest producer, is likely to fall by 39.2% year on year in 2019/20 to 6.5 million tonnes because of a drought-hit cane crop, a senior government official said Monday.

* The ISO forecast a global sugar surplus of 1.83 million tonnes in the 2018/19 season, up from a previous estimate of 641,000 tonnes. A deficit of 3 million tonnes, however, was forecast for the 2019/20 season.

* August white sugar settled down $3.90, or 1.2%, at $333.70 per tonne.

COCOA

* July New York cocoa settled up $66, or 2.7%, at $2,544 per tonne. The contract earlier touched $2,548, its highest in about a year.

* This was the contract's fifth consecutive positive finish, with prices buoyed by strong global demand signals and concerns about diminished output from second-largest producer Ghana.

* Below-average rainfall in most of Ivory Coast's cocoa growing regions last week could hurt the final stages of the April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said.

* July London cocoa settled up 34 pounds, or 1.9%, to 1,832 pounds a tonne.