Friday, May 6, 2011

Coffee and cocoa skip higher after washout

* Markets in rebound, consolidation mode after sell-off

* Ivory Coast to resume cocoa exports Saturday (Adds details and recasts, changes dateline)

By Rene Pastor and Sarah McFarlane

NEW YORK/LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Arabica coffee and cocoa futures rowed higher Friday, recovering from a commodity-wide selling spree in the previous session.

Sugar was mixed, with the new-crop harvest in Brazil and bumper supplies from major exporter Thailand expected to weigh on values.

Stocks and oil prices recovered while Treasuries fell after a report showed U.S. employers in April added more jobs than forecast, easing jitters about the economy.

"The markets are in a corrective recovery," said Sterling Smith, senior analyst with brokerage Country Hedging Inc in Minnesota.

New York's July cocoa contract went up $27 to close at $3,082 per tonne. Cocoa settled in the previous session near a month low on the second position contract. Sugar is on track for its biggest weekly decline since Nov. 2010.

London's July cocoa futures rose 5 pounds to finish at 1,890 pounds per tonne.

Top grower Ivory Coast will resume exports of cocoa beans on Saturday, more than three months after the West African country halted exports during a post-election political crisis, industry officials said.

Sugar was mixed and arabica coffee pushed higher, but both were off session highs.

The July raw sugar contract rose 0.06 cent to 20.92 cents per lb at 12:25 p.m. (1625 GMT) London's August white sugar futures shed 90 cents to trade at $581.40 per tonne.

The July arabica coffee contract on ICE Futures U.S. added 0.20 cent to trade at $2.8845 per lb at 12:26 p.m., while London's July robusta coffee was up $10 at $2,598 per tonne.

"The fundamentals of sugar have changed," said Pierre Sebag of London-based consultancy Sugar K. The global sugar market is expeted to swing into surplus from the scenario of low stocks and tight supplies a few months ago.

Macquarie Bank said in a report: "We would expect strong resistance at 20 cents a lb, a level below which additional sugar production would be seriously impaired."

Coffee roasters were active buyers the past two days, when the market tumbled 8 percent as investors fled commodities, taking the benchmark arabica contract off a 34-year high.

"They've been patient and their patience paid off," the trader said about roaster buying.

The market turned higher Friday along with the commodity complex, with short-covering giving a boost after some new momentum shorts entered the market Thursday, dealers said.

Arabica futures were the best performing agricultural commodity this year so far, gaining more than 24 percent as concerns about tight supplies and speculative buying pushed prices sharply higher. The second position July was on track to see its first weekly decline in five weeks. * Prices as of 1630 GMT Product Last Change Pct Move End 2009 Ytd Pct ICE sugar 20.94 0.08 +0.38 26.95 -22.30 ICE coffee 289.00 0.75 +0.26 137.60 110.03 ICE cocoa 3075.00 20.00 +0.65 3310.00 -7.10 Liffe sugar 582.10 -0.20 -0.03 710.20 -18.04 Liffe coffee 2600.00 18.00 +0.70 1332.00 95.20 Liffe cocoa 1889.00 4.00 +0.21 2271.00 -16.82 CRB index 340.91 -0.16 -0.05 283.38 20.30 Crude oil 99.59 -0.21 -0.21 79.36 25.49 Euro/dlr 1.44 -0.01 -0.80 1.43 0.73 * ICE sugar and ICE coffee in cents per lb, ICE cocoa, Liffe sugar and Liffe coffee in dollars per tonne. Liffe cocoa in pounds per tonne (With additional reporting by David Brough in London and Marcy Nicholson in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)

(Source: http://www.futurespros.com/news/softs-news/softs-coffee-and-cocoa-skip-higher-after-washout-1000010851)

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