By Carolyn Cui

Orange juice futures pulled back on Thursday, after scoring a four-year-and-half high early this week as traders turned their focus to America's falling demand for the commodity.

Frozen concentrated orange juice futures for September delivery tumbled 5.3% to $1.7980 a pound at the ICE Futures U.S. exchange. Since late-April, orange juice prices had soared nearly 50% before settling at $1.9325 on Tuesday, the highest price since January 2012.

Much of this year's rally has been fueled by fears for the lack of supply, especially with the greening disease and an early arrival of tropic storms in Florida, as well as the appreciation of the Brazilian real, said Joe Nikruto, a senior broker at R.J. O'Brien Futures in Chicago.

"This has been a pretty long rally; orange juice surprises a lot of people in how trendy it can be," he said. The size of the market has expanded as more speculators pile in.

Now, it's time for a reality check. After four early storms, the tropical Atlantic hurricane season has been quiet since late June. Florida, a frequent target of storms, is the world's second-largest orange-juice producer, behind Brazil.

Earlier this week, market research company AC Nielson reported that retail volume sales of orange juice fell by 5.7% in the four weeks ending July 9, a steeper slide than the 4.8% decline in the previous reporting period.

"Even with the supply challenge, even with the potential disruptions from big storms, now what you're seeing here is just a reminder on the actual demand side," Mr. Nikruto said.

In other markets, cotton prices were down 1.7% to 72.32 cents a pound, and cocoa futures for September delivery edged down 0.2% to $2,852 per ton. Raw sugar futures fell 1.7% to 18.77 cents a pound, while coffee prices gained 0.2% to $1.4140 per pound.

Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2016 13:09 ET (17:09 GMT)