After 29 days of going down, Cocoa is stable today, trading around $2,993

Cocoa trades at $2,993 per metric tonne, after ending yesterday at $2,995.

United States Building Permits (Apr) is next.

Uncertainty around the Cocoa future is reflected by published market data as United States Retail Sales released earlier showed a marked improvement to 0.4% from the preceding data of -0.7%, but fell short of the 0.8% figure forecast by a consensus of market analysts. Highly important Core Retail Sales data from United States beat analyst expectations of 0.4% with a reading of 0.4%. United States API Weekly Crude Oil Stock came out at 3.69 million, while a consensus of analysts was expecting -1.3 million.

Cocoa's upper Bollinger Band® is at $3,035.72, suggesting that a downward move may follow. In contrast, a Morning Star, which is a bullish visual pattern consisting of three candlesticks. The pattern forms following a downward trend and tends to indicate a reversal before the start of a new upward climb.

Despite the market lacking direction, technical chart analysis strongly suggests CME Cocoa is positioned for a downward move in the near term.

Meanwhile, mixed performances are seen in other Softs as Sugar closed at $25.93 (down 0.54%). Cotton is up 0.38%.

Moreover, United States Crude Oil Inventories projected to decline to -920,000 while previous data was 2.95 million; data will be released today at 14:30 UTC. United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (May) is expected tomorrow at 12:30 UTC. United States Initial Jobless Claims is projected to outperform its last figure with 254,000. It previously stood at 264,000; data will be released tomorrow at 12:30 UTC.

Approximately 7 days ago, the Cocoa future reached a significant high of $3,031 but has struggled to hold onto its gains and declined 1.19% since then.