Coffee leaves bad taste as funds hold short bets

Coffee, last year's best-performing commodity, is now the worst thanks to the return of rains in parched growing areas of Brazil.

Showers in February and March brightened the outlook for crops that will start being collected in May. With more coffee on the way, exporters are now shipping more from inventories to make room. Hedge funds have bet on lower prices for six weeks, the longest stretch in more than a year.

Bull-to-bear market gyrations spurred by changing weather in Brazil, the top producer and exporter, made coffee the most volatile commodity in the past year. Prices surged 50 percent in 2014 amid a drought. Improved conditions pushed futures down 17 percent since December, the biggest loss among the 22 components of the Bloomberg Commodity Index.