COMMODITIES-Coffee, cocoa jump as softs rule; oil, metals quiet
Reuters - Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, Nov 15 - Coffee had its biggest gain in
more than two years in London, reflecting bad harvesting weather
for Vietnam's robusta crop, while cocoa rallied in New York as
the "softs" markets dominated Friday's action in commodities.
Oil , copper and gold prices
were little changed due to familiar geopolitical and
supply-demand conditions, although a stronger dollar weighed
slightly on those major raw materials markets.
Coffee and cocoa had among the biggest gains of the day on
the Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB index. The two
crops, along with sugar, are collectively known as soft
commodities.
The CRB, a bellwether for the commodities complex, rose 0.2
percent after 14 of the 19 markets it tracks ended in the
positive.
Arabica, the coffee grade preferred in the United States and
tracked by the CRB, rose more than 3 percent in New York to lead
the CRB's gains.
The London-traded robusta, which is not quoted on the CRB,
closed up 4 percent for its largest daily gain since mid-2011.
"As we go into the weekend and shore things up, you have
people who don't want to be left behind the eight ball if we
have a turnaround next week," Hector Galvan, a senior softs
broker at RJO Futures in Chicago, said, using pool players'
lingo for an unfinished game.
Arabica coffee's second-month contract on New York's ICE
Futures finished up 3.45 cents, or 3.3 percent, at $1.091
per lb. Traders said the market rebounded on technical covering
after hitting a near five-year low of $1.0415 last week.
Robusta's most-active second month position on London's
Liffe closed up $64 at $1,511 a tonne. It had surged
much as 5 percent during the day to a session high of $1,520.
Robusta rallied in response to rains hampering harvest of
the crop in top growing country Vietnam. A technically oversold
market also drove short-covering, robusta traders said.
Cocoa had the second largest gains on the CRB. In New York,
the beverage and confection commodity's second-month contract
rose nearly 2 percent to finish at $2,730 a tonne.
Soybeans weighed the most on the CRB. The crop's front-month
contract in Chicago closed down 2.5 percent at $12.80-1/2
a bushel after disappointing U.S. exports of the crop, weak cash
prices and rising harvest expectations out of South America.
Prices at 3:45 p.m. EDT (2045 GMT)
CLOSE CHG CHG CHG
US crude 96.67 -0.02 0.0% 5.3%
Brent crude 108.31 0.03 0.0% -2.5%
Natural gas 3.660 0.055 1.5% 9.2%
US gold 1287.40 1.10 0.1% -23.2%
Gold 1287.70 0.69 0.1% -23.1%
US Copper 3.17 0.01 0.3% -13.2%
LME Copper 7010.00 18.00 0.3% -11.6%
Dollar 80.827 -0.198 -0.2% 5.3%
CRB 274.337 0.494 0.2% -7.0%
US corn 422.00 -4.50 -1.1% -39.6%
US soybeans 1280.50 -33.00 -2.5% -9.7%
US wheat 644.50 -0.25 0.0% -17.2%
US Coffee 105.75 3.15 3.1% -26.5%
US Cocoa 2736.00 75.00 2.8% 22.4%
US Sugar 17.55 -0.09 -0.5% -10.0%
US silver 20.727 20.520 1.6% -31.4%
US platinum 1438.90 -5.20 0.0% -6.5%
US palladium 732.65 -7.15 -1.0% 4.2%
