ICE raw sugar prices slipped back on Monday from the prior session's one-year high, weighed by excess stocks and a slowdown in fund buying, while arabica coffee futures surged back towards a recent two-year peak. March raw sugar fell 0.07 cents, or 0.5%, to 13.43 cents per lb at 1450 GMT, having hit 13.67 cents on Friday, its highest since last October.
ICE sugar speculators slashed their net short position by 77,154 contracts to 26,279 in the week to Dec. 10, CFTC data showed. "The funds have pretty much covered an enormous short, and the market only managed to rally slowly. We are left to wonder if the investment community are considering a long-term long position," Sucden Financial said in a note.
Sugar has been boosted of late as a global deficit is widely forecast for the current 2019/20 season. However, stocks are hefty following two years of surplus, so market rallies tend to face resistance by prompting heavy producer selling. The Brazilian real rose to its highest in a month versus the dollar, deterring producers from selling dollar-priced sugar by lowering returns in local currency terms.
March white sugar fell $0.10 or 0.03%, to $355.20 a tonne, having touched its highest since February at $357.80. March arabica coffee was up 6.25 cents, or 4.8%, at $1.3720 per lb, having hit $1.4030 on Friday, its highest since September 2017. Arabica has risen more than 40% since mid-October. ICE arabica coffee speculators switched to a net long position of 14,492 contracts in the week to Dec. 10, CFTC data showed.
Arabica has been underpinned by the prospect of a deficit in 2019/20. ICE-certified stocks have fallen from 2.5 million bags in March to around 2 million, helping prompt fund buying. March robusta coffee rose $28, or 2%, to $1,445 per tonne, having hit $1,479 early last week, a five-month high.
March New York cocoa was down $2, or 0.1%, at $2,570 a tonne, having hit its lowest in a month on Thursday. Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 883,000 tonnes between Oct. 1 and Dec. 15, exporters estimated on Monday, up 0.6% from the same period last season.
ICE cocoa speculators raised their net long position by 410 contracts to 36,471 contracts in the week to Dec. 10, CFTC data showed. March London cocoa was down 17 pounds, or 1.0%, at 1,778 pounds a tonne, having hit a three-month low on Friday.