DJ Nybot Coffee Review: Surges As Funds And Locals Buy

(Comtex Finance)NEW YORK, Dec 22, 2005 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) –Arabica coffee futures climbed on the New York Board of Trade Thursday, scaling Wednesday’s high after industry buying curbed an early dip below a dollar a pound, basis March, and locals and funds bought.

The March contract closed up 160 points at $1.0280 a pound and May ended up 165 points at $1.0495.

“Speculators and locals pushed March down through $1.00, where there were supposed to be sell stops,” a desk trader said. “Industry was a light buyer, locals covered and we shot back up through yesterday’s high as funds bought. Stops were touched and March cleared $1.03. Origins were selling in that area.”

“The range was in for the day by mid morning, and we chopped around in the higher end into the close,” he said.

Futures volume was estimated at 10,950 lots and included a lot of against actuals. In options, 3,694 calls and 1,282 puts traded.

Some 2,485 against actuals were posted in March, 44 in May and 152 in July.

Brazil from Dec. 1 to 20 exported 930,131 60-kilogram bags, below 1.03 million bags in the same November period, according to the Green Coffee Exporters Council, or Cecafe.

Roasters, finding Brazilian and Central American beans expensive at origin, see Nybot-licensed inventories as an affordable source of coffee. Stocks held in Nybot-certified warehouses fell to 3.920 million bags Tuesday from 3.933 million Monday, the exchange said late Wednesday. Some 26,497 bags were waiting to be graded. Roasters are removing beans from certified inventories during the peak, winter-demand period.

Green coffee stocks at Japanese ports stood at 117,767 metric tons at November’s end, down 8% from October, according to Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture. Japan is the third-largest coffee importer.

Brazil’s soluble or instant coffee industry plan to ask officials to open a dispute-settlement panel in the World Trade Organization because of what it calls discriminatory trade tariffs. Brazil’s soluble shippers will face conditions outside the E.U.’s Generalized System of Preferences starting in January and will be charged a 9% tax on soluble exports to E.U. nations.

Scattered showers are expected in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais Thursday, turning drier Friday and Saturday, according to Meteorlogix, with temperatures near to above normal. A good rainfall pattern has fostered crop development recently. Growers begin harvesting in May and continue into September.

The Brazilian real opened stronger against the U.S. dollar Thursday, boosted by continued inflows from foreign investors.

Nybot markets are operating on normal schedules, but commuters found it rough getting to work Thursday on the third day of a New York City transit strike.

Nybot March finds support at 99.70, 99.60-99.40, 99.25, 99.00 and 98.50 cents, and faces resistance at 103.10, 103.25, 103.50-103.60, 104.00 cents.

Nybot Change Range Liffe Change
Mar 102.80 up 1.60 99.70-103.10 Jan 1147 dn 12
May 104.95 up 1.65 102.00-105.15 Mar 1169 dn 9
-By Susan Buchanan, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5950; susan.buchanan@dowjones.com  

(END) Dow Jones Newswires