Coffee Prices Today 18/9: Sharp Decline Amidst Investment Fund Sell-off Wave

Coffee prices continued to plummet today, with Robusta falling nearly 7% and Arabica losing more than 8%. Traders indicated that the ICE’s increase in margin requirements for Arabica coffee contracts has forced funds, which predominantly held long positions, into liquidation selling.

World Coffee Price Update

At the close of the trading session on September 17th, on the London exchange, the online price for Robusta coffee for the November 2025 delivery contract reached $4,450 per ton, a decrease of 6.91% ($331/ton) compared to the previous session. The contract for January 2026 also fell by 7.09% ($335/ton) to $4,390 per ton.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a drop of more than 30 cents,” a U.S. broker said, adding that high-frequency trading may have exacerbated the decline, according to Reuters.

According to analyst Ryan Delany of the Coffee Trading Academy (CTA), the market fell after failing to break through the resistance level around $4.2.

“This resistance was tested but held, triggering a sharp 30-cent correction in the last two sessions,” he said.

Traders also suggested that the ICE’s increase in margin requirements for Arabica coffee contracts forced funds, which mainly held long buying positions, to liquidate. Accordingly, the ICE exchange raised the initial margin for “C” coffee (kc) futures contracts from $10,076 to $11,599 for contracts maturing in December, effective September 17th.

The justices will hear the case in November, a timeframe considered “fast-tracked” by the Supreme Court’s usual standards. However, it should be noted that the Court currently has a conservative “supermajority” and is unlikely to make decisions that go against the will of the President, who appointed three of the nine justices.

In another development, on September 17th (U.S. time), after a two-day meeting, the Fed decided to lower its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, bringing the new range to 4-4.25%, as forecasted by the market.

This is the agency’s first adjustment of the year, after having cut rates three times in 2024 and then holding them steady for months to monitor inflation and employment, especially after the series of import tariff policies introduced by President Donald Trump.

The U.S. monetary authority has indicated it will reduce rates by another 0.5 percentage points this year, followed by further cuts of 0.25 percentage points in 2026 and 2027.