Soft futures edge lower

Soft futures were mixed on Wednesday with coffee, sugar and cocoa declining, while cotton advanced.

On the ICE Futures U.S. Exchange, arabica coffee for September delivery traded at $1.2285 a pound at 12:44 GMT, down 2.34% on the day. Prices ranged between days high and low of $1.2643 and $1.2240 a pound respectively. The C contract settled higher last two days and pared its weekly advance after closing 3.08% higher last week.

Arabica was supported recently as weather forecasts predicted temperatures below zero in some of Brazils growing areas that could deal frost damage to the crop. However according to Celso Oliveira, a meteorologist with Sao Paulo-based weather forecaster Somar Meteorologia, the lowest temperature in the Parana state was 1 degree Celsius. Meanwhile, temperatures in southwestern Sao Paulo coffee areas fell to 3 degrees Celsius. Parana’s output is expected to total 1.7 million bags of coffee in the 2013-2014 season. Total output in Brazil is expected to stand at 48.6 million bags. Sao Paulo is set to produce 12.6 million bags of coffee, whereas Minas Gerais’s output will most likely equal 25.5 million.

Alex Parry, a broker at ABN Amro Markets U.K. Ltd., said by e-mail for Bloomberg: “We are waiting for final confirmation, but the early reports are showing that there was little if any cold weather damage. This is being reflected in the flat price.”

Meanwhile on the NYSE Liffe in London, robusta futures for September delivery traded at $1 901 a ton at 12:45 GMT, down 1.60% on the day. Prices held in range between days high of $1 932 and and low at $1 893, the lowest since July 15. The September contract is marking a fourth straight day of declines, extending this weeks fall to over 3.5% after closing the previous week 5.02% higher.

Meanwhile, cocoa for September delivery traded at GBP1 588 a ton at 12:45 GMT, down 0.63% on the day. Prices ranged between GBP1 604 and GBP1 572 a ton respectively. On the ICE in New York, cocoa with same month delivery stood at $2 342.50 a ton at 12:46 GMT, marking a 0.40% daily loss.

Elsewhere on the market, raw sugar declined in New York. The October contract traded at $0.1624 a pound at 12:42 GMT, down 0.67% on the day. Prices ranged between days high and low of $0.1637 and $0.1623 a pound respectively. The sweetener slipped 0.2% on Tuesday and is so far marking a little over 0.3% weekly decline after settling 1.31% higher last week.

Meanwhile, cotton advanced on the day and traded at $0.8598 a pound at 12:47 GMT, up 0.36% on the day. Prices varied between days high and low of $0.8611 and $0.8558 per pound respectively. The fiber slipped 0.4% on Tuesday and remained unchanged on the week after advancing more than 1% the previous one.

In its weekly crop progress report on Monday, the USDA said cotton squaring advanced last week but still fell behind last year’s pace. As of July 21, 77% of the crop was squared, compared to 68% a week earlier. This was below last year’s 88% during the comparable 7-day period and the five year average reading of 83%.

As for the cotton condition, the agency reported it was overall a bit worse than last year’s and fairly unchanged compared to the preceding week. As of July 21, 24% of the crop was categorized as “Very poor” and “Poor”, compared to 26% a week earlier and 18% in 2012. Meanwhile, 32% of the cotton fell in the “Fair” category, the same like the previous week but less than the preceding season’s 35%. As for the premium quality, 44% was rated good-excellent, above the previous week’s 42% but below 2012′s 47%.