Arabica coffee futures fell more than 2 percent Friday, with speculative selling spurred by fund and origin selling in London's robusta market and wet weather in Brazil, traders and analysts said.
"We have some weakness in London that is spilling over here," said Jim Cordier of Liberty Trading Group.
"Mainly we have spec liquidation of longs that they put on here this past week. Technically, this market looks weak and we have rains coming in Brazil over the next four to five days," he said.
On the New York Board of Trade, the most-active December coffee contract settled down 2.20 cents or 2.7 percent at 80.15 cents a lb after trading from 79.35 to 81.30 cents. March fell 2.15 cents to 83.20 cents, and longer-dated contracts lost 1.95 to 2.00 cents.
On London's LIFFE, front-month November coffee finished 3.9 percent lower at $636 a tonne.
One trader said small and speculative funds represented the bulk of trading activity in New York, while producers and roasters were virtually absent. "There was really not that much going on. It was all specs and locals," he said.
On the weather front, Meteorlogix predicted light showers in top grower Brazil's coffee belt on Friday through Sunday, with a few lingering showers on Tuesday.
The wet weather will "ease stress to the trees brought on by recent hot, dry weather and initiate significant flowerings," it said in its daily statement.
NYBOT estimated volume reached 12,511 lots from Thursday's count of 16,856 lots. Call options hit 3,779 lots and puts amounted to 1,692 lots.
Open interest rose 979 lots to 88,838 lots as of September 30.
Technically, one trader said support for December delivery lies at 79.50 cents with resistance at 85 cents.