The most-active May cocoa contract listed on NYBOT slipped $7 to settle at $1,585 a tonne, after dealing within a daily range from $1,576 to $1,599. The front-month may contract eased $5 to $1,565 a tonne, and distant deliveries shed $3 to $6.
The US currency was bolstered against sterling by a combination of an unexpectedly cautious assessment of Britain's economy from the Bank of England and dollar-friendly comments made by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
The trader said funds bought about 2,000 lots in futures at the NYBOT, while arbitrage related buying in London helped to soak up producer selling there. Life's most-active May contract settled at 871 pounds a tonne, down just 2 pounds.
Traders and brokers said the market took news about a possible strike in Ivory Coast in stride as players awaited more details. "If it's serious it will have some impact. The question you have to ask is: What is the implication at this time of year," said a cocoa broker.
Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast threatened an indefinite strike from next week unless their demand that the government finances co-operatives' bean purchases is met, a union spokesman said on Wednesday.
The Ivories cocoa co-operatives had not been given enough financing by the relevant cocoa bodies in the West African country even though they had continued to pay levies to those organisations, the spokesman told Reuters in Abidjan.
The same unions went on a weeklong strike at the end of October for similar reasons.