* Ivorian fighting nudges cocoa to new highs
* Arabica coffee tops 34-yr high, but falls late
* ICE sugar collapses late on stop-loss sales
U.S. cocoa and coffee futures vaulted to over 30-year highs Friday but profit-taking and a wave of
liquidation dragged both goods into mostly negative territory by the end of the session.
A virtual civil war in top cocoa producer Ivory Coast powered bean futures and a shortage of high-quality beans spurred arabica coffee.
Sugar futures were hit hard as well. The volume of business in U.S. soft commodity markets ran well below their 30-day norms, with raw sugar and cocoa about a quarter below and arabica coffee a third-below the averages, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
New York's May cocoa contract fell $76 to settle at $3,657 per tonne, having posted a new 32-year intra-day peak at $3,775. Liffe's May cocoa contract lost 56 pounds to finish at 2,340 pounds per tonne.
ICE's May arabica coffee futures fell 1.65 cents to close at $2.728 per lb, having hit a 34-year intra-day high at $2.792. London's May robusta coffee was up $8 to end at 2,390 per tonne.
"It (coffee) did make a new historical high today, which is significant, but there's no new news. It's more about the lack of selling from origin than anything else," Marcio Bernardo, trader with Newedge USA, said of arabica coffee futures.
Market turned lower on profit taking too, he said. "There's not much volume here so you have to take this movement with a grain of salt," he said.
ICE cocoa futures rumbled to a 32-year high, despite forecasts of a surplus of cocoa beans in the market, driven by the prospect supplies may dry up due to the Ivorian crisis. The trade was also concerned over prospects for Ivorian mid-crop supplies due to the violence.
"People believe the mid crop could be disrupted," said Keith Flury, a senior analyst with Rabobank in London.
Constraints on bank liquidity and security fears could also dissuade Ivorian growers from harvesting, dealers said.
The May/July spread in New York and London cocoa futures contracts <0#LCC:> <0#CC:> remained at a steep premium, an indication of tight supplies or worries Ivorian cocoa may be continue to be severely constrained by the fighting there.
Nick Gentile, the head of trading operations in commodity firm Atlantic Capital Advisors, characterized the selling which hit the complex as likely "profit-taking."
"Once that short-covering music stops, the profit taking comes in and falls into a hole," Luis Rangel, vice-president for commodity derivatives with ICAP North America in Jersey City, said, adding the advance seen "were short-covering driven."
Another dealer said: "It looks like one of these funds decided they wanted to short the market going into the weekend and dumped their positions across the board. There is really no news out there that triggered it. In fact, there has been no change in the bullish fundamentals for cocoa, sugar and coffee at this time."
The impact on the cocoa market was not as harsh and that may be because of the daily gunbattles in Ivory Coast and the virtual state of civil war in a country, which accounts for 40 percent of world supplies of cocoa beans.
ICE's May arabica coffee futures
"It (coffee) did make a new historical high today, which is significant, but there's no new news. It's more about the lack of selling from origin than anything else," Marcio Bernardo, trader with Newedge USA, said of arabica coffee futures.
Market turned lower on profit taking too, he said. "There's not much volume here so you have to take this movement with a grain of salt," he said.
ICE cocoa futures rumbled to a 32-year high, despite forecasts of a surplus of cocoa beans in the market, driven by the prospect supplies may dry up due to the Ivorian crisis. The trade was also concerned over prospects for Ivorian mid-crop supplies due to the violence.
"People believe the mid crop could be disrupted," said Keith Flury, a senior analyst with Rabobank in London.
Constraints on bank liquidity and security fears could also dissuade Ivorian growers from harvesting, dealers said.
The May/July spread in New York and London cocoa futures contracts <0#LCC:> <0#CC:> remained at a steep premium, an indication of tight supplies or worries Ivorian cocoa may be continue to be severely constrained by the fighting there.
Nick Gentile, the head of trading operations in commodity firm Atlantic Capital Advisors, characterized the selling which hit the complex as likely "profit-taking."
"Once that short-covering music stops, the profit taking comes in and falls into a hole," Luis Rangel, vice-president for commodity derivatives with ICAP North America in Jersey City, said, adding the advance seen "were short-covering driven."
Another dealer said: "It looks like one of these funds decided they wanted to short the market going into the weekend and dumped their positions across the board. There is really no news out there that triggered it. In fact, there has been no change in the bullish fundamentals for cocoa, sugar and coffee at this time."
The impact on the cocoa market was not as harsh and that may be because of the daily gunbattles in Ivory Coast and the virtual state of civil war in a country, which accounts for 40 percent of world supplies of cocoa beans.
