04:57 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Bloomberg News

Coffee in New York soared 7 percent, the most since November, as the second hurricane in less than a month threatened to damage inventories in New Orleans. The price fluctuation was the biggest of any commodity today.

Hurricane Rita, forecast to land in Texas, may veer east and strike Louisiana's coast, National Hurricane Center meteorologist Chris Sisko said. Coffee prices rose as much as 11 percent from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1 after Hurricane Katrina left 80 percent of New Orleans under water. Warehouses in the city hold 17 percent of the coffee stockpiles monitored by the New York Board of Trade.

“Everybody is asking about the situation at the warehouses,” said Rodrigo Costa, a broker at Fimat USA LLC in New York. “We still don't know the damage from the last hurricane.”

Coffee futures for December delivery rose 6.05 cents to 92.5 cents a pound on the New York Board of Trade. The percentage gain was the most since Nov. 15. Prices yesterday touched 86.3 cents, the lowest since Nov. 15.

Board of Trade officials had planned to inspect New Orleans warehouses this week for the first time since Katrina hit. Officials may have been delayed because of the new hurricane threat, spokesman Ted Davis said. The New Orleans mayor suspended plans for residents to reenter the city.

A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price for delivery by a specific date. The biggest movers are screened for the size of the market and amount of daily trading.