Cocoa Falls as Traders Take Profits

Cocoa futures fell Tuesday with analysts calling the contract "overbought" and prone to profit-taking.

Cocoa for December was down 1.1% at $2,094 a ton on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.

As of last Tuesday, bearish money managers in the cocoa market outweighed the bulls by the lowest levels since Jan. 17, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Hedge funds and other money managers betting on lower prices outweighed the bulls by 9,511 contracts.

Societe Generale called it a "possible inflexion point" for cocoa as world production ideas are high. According to the International Cocoa Organization, a global surplus of 371,000 tons of cocoa is expected this season.

"Traders talk of increased demand to go against big world production as prices are now attractive for grinders and chocolate manufacturers," said Jack Scoville, vice president of Price Futures Group in Chicago.

In other markets, raw sugar for March was up 0.1% to end at 14.74 cents a pound; arabica coffee for December lost 0.6% at $1.251 a pound; frozen concentrated orange juice for January lost 0.1% at $1.545 a pound; and December cotton was off 0.4% at 68.38 cents a pound.

Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 31, 2017 16:28 ET (20:28 GMT)