Cocoa Prices Rebound After Bullish Production Data

Cocoa prices bounced back Monday after falling to their lowest level since August last week.

Futures for March delivery rose 1.3% to $1,912 a ton, climbing back above the key $1,900 psychological and technical level.

Recent data on cocoa from the Ivory Coast arriving at ports was low, indicating less production from one of the world's largest producers, said Peter Mooses, a senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago. Concerns that the market will be well-supplied had weighed on cocoa in recent sessions.

Still, Mr. Mooses says he doesn't think prices will sustain a move above $1,900 unless more bullish data is released.

"$1,900 is going to be that tough level we're going to have to get over again," he said. "It's been like a magnet, where we see that sideways trading."

For the year, prices have fallen roughly 10%, with analysts attributing recent losses to traders selling after overestimating demand for the main ingredient in chocolate.

In other markets, arabica coffee for March declined 2.1% to $1.200 a pound. March raw sugar shed 0.7% to 13.95 cents a pound, January frozen concentrated orange juice was down 1.2% at $1.51 a pound and March cotton fell 1.2% to 72.86 cents a pound.

--Write to Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2017 14:52 ET (19:52 GMT)