Natural Gas, Cocoa Pop: Market Bits

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Cocoa was helping to lead commodities Thursday early afternoon on short covering -- extending gains from the past three days.

Cocoa for July delivery was rising 2.2% to $3,136 a metric ton.

"Price movements in the cocoa market lately have been meaningless," says PFGBEST Research analyst Robin Rosenberg. "With hundreds of thousands of tons [of cocoa] about to flood the market, you would think the market would head lower. Perhaps there are just too many shorts?"

Once the leadership power struggle in the world's leading cocoa-exporting country, the Ivory Coast resolves itself, the market could be flooded with a massive amount of cocoa exports. It will take some time for the country to normalize itself though, Rosenberg said.

"Stop them [the shorts] out and then we might see a semblance of normality return to the market," the analyst commented.

iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cocoa Subindex Total Return ETN (NIB) was adding 1.9% to $44.34.

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Natural gas for May delivery was gaining 2.3% to $4.234 per million British thermal units -- extending gains from the previous day -- after the EIA (Energy Information Administration) reported that inventory built up less than expected on a weekly basis.

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