Cocoa Continues to Rally, Gold Falters

Ivaylo
26 Mar, 2007
New York City

U.S. cocoa futures rose to new contract highs by the close Friday, aided by speculative buying, while Arabica coffee futures climbed to three-week highs. Traders reacted well to the decision Brazil took to offer growers options to help them hold back beans after the harvest starts. Profit-taking lowered gold and silver futures after the recent upside momentum died down. Energy futures ended mixed.

[R]6:00AM Cocoa rallies Mondy, while precious metals lose the upside momentum.[/R]
Most-active May cocoa on the New York Board of Trade surged $19 to end at $1,920 a metric ton, after setting a new contract high of $1,924 a ton. The May Arabica coffee contract finished up 1.60 cent at $1.1335 a pound, while futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for May declined 0.02 cent to 10.20 cents a pound.

April gold shed $6.90 to $657.30 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange with May silver also down 25.3 cents to $13.227 an ounce. April platinum shed $7.60 to $1,233.40 an ounce, while June palladium added $1.75 to settle at $359.50. The most-active May copper contract lost 0.40 cent to close at $3.0690 per pound.

Crude oil for May delivery settled up 59 cents at $62.28 a barrel, the highest for a front-month contract since Dec. 22. April gasoline also added 4.08 cents to end at $1.9983 a gallon, after trading as high as $2.02, the highest for a front-month contract since Aug. 21. April heating oil dipped 0.69 cent to $1.7102 a gallon and April natural gas also settled down 5.1 cents at $7.269 per million British thermal units.

On the Chicago Board of Trade, May corn ended 6.25 cents lower at $4.0325 per bushel, while May soybeans closed 2.25 cents down at $7.6950. May wheat closed 5.50 cents lower at $4.6150 per bushel.