Coffee Market Commentary – 2010.03.10

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Traders have been focused on the potential for a big crop in Brazil which will help ease tightness in the cash market for the past month but the market may have already “priced in” the large Brazil crop and the focus may shift to spot market tightness ahead of the harvest. Cash premiums remain high for many Central America growths led by Colombia but traders see better production from Colombia for the harvest this fall. The head of the International Coffee Organization believes the world coffee production for the 2009/10 season will reach near 126 million bags which is up from a previous estimate of 124 million. Consumption is thought to be near 134 million bags per year. Therefore, a jump of near 8 million bags for the Brazil crop this season would just help the market avoid a production deficit but will not help build stocks. While we could see a slight world production surplus this season, the surplus should be small and there is still the potential for quality issues due to uneven flowering. May coffee surged higher to break-out to the upside of a 10-session trading range yesterday. The rally also penetrated the downtrend channel resistance and this may have added to the technical buying support. A strong US dollar and weakness in other commodity markets kept the market under pressure early but ideas that it will take more time to see less “tightness” in the short-term supply ahead of the Brazil harvest, and that it will take longer for Colombia to see production back to normal, helped support the solid gains. The Coffee growers federation of Colombia believe Colombia production was just 650,000 bags in February as compared with 868,000 bags last year. Traders believe that March production will be higher than February and that April will be higher than March and so on but the recovery in production is coming slower than expected. This was an annual pace of 7.8 million bags and traders see 2010 production near 11-12 million. On top of an improving chart picture, the steady rise in open interest off of an early March low during a period of base-building is seen as a positive development. Daily ICE certified deliverable coffee stocks were down 23,200 bags to 2.729 million with 3,413 bags pending review.

TODAY’S GUIDANCE: The upside break-out is impressive and the May coffee should find close-in buying support near 132.02 with 136.05 and 138.45 as upside targets.

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