Raw sugar on ICE slipped on producer selling on Friday, while arabicas steadied after a steep slide in the previous session after an upward revision in Brazilian coffee output by a US government attache. Cocoa futures on ICE dipped, under pressure from ample new-crop supplies from West Africa. Soft commodity prices showed little immediate reaction to a Chinese rate cut on Friday.
Sugar futures eased under pressure from producer selling that was spurred by a weak real currency against the dollar, which boosts local currency returns for Brazilian exporters of dollar-denominated sugar. "It's producer selling pressure going into play," Rabobank commodities analyst Tracey Allen said. "I'm not sure that a small rate cut (in China) will stimulate a huge volume of domestic consumption."
China cut its benchmark interest rates for the first time in more than two years to lower borrowing costs and lift a cooling economy that is on track for its slackest annual growth in 24 years. March raw sugar was down 0.05 cents, or 0.3 percent, at 16.05 cents a lb by 1438 GMT.
"Our best guestimate to the million euro question of which way first for the next 50 points would be lower," said Thomas Kujawa, co-head of the softs desk at Sucden Financial. March whites eased $1.90, or 0.45 percent, to $419.80 a tonne. Arabica coffee inched down, having tumbled on Thursday after a US government attache's Wednesday revision of 2014/15 output to 51.2 million 60kg bags in Brazil, the top biggest producer.
March arabica coffee futures on ICE traded down 1.1 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $1.8775 per lb. January robusta coffee futures on ICE traded down $9, or 0.4 percent, at $2,069 a tonne. ICE March cocoa was down $16, or 0.6 percent, at $2,813 a tonne, while March London cocoa fell 7 pounds, or 0.4 percent, to 1,867 pounds a tonne. "Cocoa is a supply side story, in anticipation of building a surplus in the coming marketing year," Rabobank's Allen said.
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