Cocoa fluctuates as investors take profit after prices rise above $10,000 a ton

Cocoa futures edged higher in New York, reversing a brief dip in prices as investors took profits after a rally that sent prices above $10,000 a ton.

The most-active contract rose as much as 3% late in the trading session Wednesday, wiping out a 3.7% slump. Investors had earlier closed out positions to take profits after the market reached an all-time intraday high of $10,080 a metric ton on Tuesday.

“The market saw some back-and-fill in the wake of achieving a long-term bullish objective yesterday,” analysts at the Hightower Report said in a Wednesday note. But, “there has been no fundamental change.”

Futures have more than doubled this year as poor crops in key West African growers put the world on course for a third straight annual supply deficit.
Ivory Coast and Ghana have upcoming, smaller harvests — but the output will likely provide little relief to tight global supplies.

Ivory Coast’s so-called mid-crop, which begins in April, is expected to be smaller than last year’s production, while Ghana’s mid-crop starting in the summer is also seen lagging an earlier forecast.