Prices for Coffee, Cocoa, Sugar Fall on Tuesday
Cocoa, sugar and coffee all fell sharply Tuesday, as prices were weighed down by the prospects of bumper crops and a stronger dollar.
Sugar for October delivery dropped 2.3% to 13.19 cents a pound, cocoa for December fell 2.8% to $1,867 a ton, and arabica coffee for September was down 3.4% to $1.3235 a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.
Analysts said the heavy losses in the agricultural markets were in line with a broad-based selloff across commodities, as the dollar rose to its highest level against a basket of major currencies in nearly three weeks after strong U.S. retail sales data and tensions with North Korea eased.
"The dollar is significantly stronger, which makes commodities priced in the dollar more expensive in the global markets," said Jack Scoville, a Chicago-based analyst at Price Futures Group. "There're a lot of funds selling just about all commodities this morning."
Crude oil was down 0.4% to $47.41 a barrel, while gold lost 0.9% to $1,278.6 a troy ounce. Cotton for December fell 0.9% to 67.16 cents a pound.
Adding to the bearish sentiment for soft commodities, concerns about big harvests of sugar and cocoa due to favorable weather conditions helped drag down the prices.
Sugar prices bounced back Monday after a nine-day losing streak, thanks to weather forecasts of rain in Brazil, the world's largest sugar exporter.
Orange juice futures for September bucked the trend and gained 3.2% to $1.4035 a pound, even as Elizabeth Steger, a closely-watched independent forecaster, estimated Florida would produce 75.5 million boxes of oranges in the year beginning Oct. 1. That would be a 10% increase from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2016-17 estimate of 68.7 million boxes, which was the lowest output since 1964.
--Julie Wernau contributed to the article
Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com
Cocoa, sugar and coffee all fell sharply Tuesday, as prices were weighed down by the prospects of bumper crops and a stronger dollar.
Sugar for October delivery dropped 2.7% to settle at 13.13 cents a pound, cocoa for December fell 2.9% to close at $1,865 a ton, and arabica coffee for September was down 3.6% to end at $1.3200 a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.
Analysts said the heavy losses in the agricultural markets were in line with a broad-based selloff across commodities, as the dollar rose to its highest level against a basket of major currencies in nearly three weeks after strong U.S. retail sales data and tensions with North Korea eased.
"The dollar is significantly stronger, which makes commodities priced in the dollar more expensive in the global markets," said Jack Scoville, a Chicago-based analyst at Price Futures Group. "There're a lot of funds selling just about all commodities this morning."
Crude oil was down 0.1% to $47.53 a barrel, while gold lost 0.91% to $1,278.70 a troy ounce. Cotton for December delivery fell 0.9%, settling at 67.16 cents a pound.
Adding to the bearish sentiment for soft commodities, concerns about big harvests of sugar and cocoa due to favorable weather conditions helped drag down the prices.
Sugar prices bounced back Monday after a nine-day losing streak, thanks to weather forecasts of rain in Brazil, the world's largest sugar exporter.
Orange juice futures for September bucked the trend and gained 2.4% to settle at $1.3930 a pound, even as Elizabeth Steger, a closely-watched independent forecaster, estimated Florida would produce 75.5 million boxes of oranges in the year beginning Oct. 1. That would be a 10% increase from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2016-17 estimate of 68.7 million boxes, which was the lowest output since 1964.
--Julie Wernau contributed to the article
Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 15, 2017 14:59 ET (18:59 GMT)