Up almost 59% and 55.2%, respectively, year-to-date, the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index (NYSEArca: JO) and the iPath Pure Beta Coffee ETN (NYSEArca: CAFE) are two of this year’s best non-leveraged exchange traded products.
One would not know it if one only focused on the ETNs’ performances over the last two weeks. Since March 11, CAFE is off 14.1% while JO is lower by 15%. Coffee futures tumbled last week on growing hopes that rainfall will alleviate Brazil’s drought. Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of Arabica-grade coffee beans. [Coffee ETNs Flirt With Bear Territory]
JO has steadied this week and was up 1.1% heading into Friday’s session. Some coffee market observers think the commodity’s recent pullback is a pause before futures again head higher. Assuming dry weather in Brazil next month, coffee futures could touch $3 per pound, Shawn Hackett of the “Hackett Flow Money Report” told Trang Ho of Investor’s Business Daily.
Earlier this week, coffee futures resided around $1.76 per pound and while Brazil is the dominant grower in the market, robusta futures could get a lift as well due too much rain in some parts of Southeast Asia and not enough in Vietnam, the world’s largest robusta coffee grower. [Ag Commodities Lifting This ETF]
“Should the market be worried about a failed Vietnamese crop on top of the current failed Brazilian crop, the upside potential could be monumental and unimaginable,” Hackett told IBD.