Coffee commentary for Dec.23rd

ICE Coffee Futures Finish Slightly Lower

Arabica coffee futures closed slightly lower Tuesday marking the end of a very quiet session with most of the market’s participants absent due to the upcoming holidays. The most actively futures contract for March delivery settled 115 points lower at 171.00 cents per pound. Volume was scarce with only 10,370 lots exchanging hands today. In related news, Somar Meteorology kept its forecast for rains in the main coffee growing regions of Brazil. The extended forecast calls for rainfall that should cover south Brazilian coffee belt.
Markets hours of operation for next days:
December 24th: NY Close at 1:00 PM EST / London 12:18 PM GMT
December 25th: NY Closed / London Closed
December 26th: NY Opens 8:00 AM EST / London Closed
London Market - London’s composition recorded little change with the January structure still under pressure as players addressed positions which eased the spot month discount towards $40. More noted price fix buying materialised in early trading which was enough to provide a base from which the board lifted into positive numbers during the morning. An absence of origin interest was important as the market worked to address an oversold situation after prices fell sharply yesterday. The management of the spot month has been controlling London recently. Following good business yesterday the January exposure was reduced by 3,974 lots to leave a working balance of 6,505. This has now changed the working balance and its impact on the overall market. Such a significant part of the exposure has been pushed own the board of which a decent percentage has been subsequently liquidated. Activity slowed into the afternoon with prices consolidating the morning gains with the main part of the flow against structure with the January discount recording a new low of $41. The market again struggled to gather upside momentum edging back towards 1900 into the closing sequence but the switch narrowing $3.