Prices rose 1.7 percent last week, their sixth consecutive positive weekly finish. The run up prompted a pick-up in hedging by Central American producers, dealers said. March robusta coffee settled down $26, or 1.7 percent, at $1,508 per tonne.
Index funds rolling forward long positions out of March into May over the next few days could help to widen the front month's discount, dealers said. March raw sugar settled up 0.35 cent, or 2.8 percent, at 12.79 cents per lb, touching a high of 12.93 and erasing more than half of Friday's sharp losses. Prices on Friday fell to a three-week low of 12.37 cents per lb.
"From the 13.27 high on Jan. 16 to the 12.37 low on Friday, a 62 percent Fibonacci retracement is 12.92," noted one US trader. "(Today) we traded up to 12.93 and then the market stalled; so, I think short term, the trend is still down," the trader said. Much of the recent buying had been driven by system funds, with fundamentals becoming more bearish, dealers said.
"Crops are doing well almost everywhere, notably in India but also in Thailand and the European Union," broker Marex Spectron said in a weekly market update. March white sugar settled up $6.70, or 2 percent, at $345.8 per tonne. May New York cocoa settled up $20, or 0.9 percent, to $2,284 a tonne after touching a Jan. 18 high of $2,336.
Rainfall was below average last week in most of Ivory Coast's cocoa regions but good soil moisture content helped the development of the April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said. May London cocoa settled up 3 pounds, or 0.19 percent, at 1,623 pounds per tonne. Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.31 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and Jan. 27, exporters estimated on Monday, up about 9 percent year on year.