Nearby coffee futures slipped more than 1 percent on Friday as speculators took profits from the 4 percent gain of the previous day, said traders who also cited general weakness across the commodity spectrum.
The New York Board of Trade's active May arabica contract slipped 1.60 cents to end at $1.07 a lb after trading from $1.0625 to $1.0870. July shed 1.55 cents to $1.0985 a lb and back month lost 1.45 to 1.95 cents.
"We saw a little retracement from yesterday's action," said a dealer at a commodity-trading house. "There was definitely some profit-taking into the end of the quarter," he said, adding that producer hedging also weighed on prices.
On Thursday, the front-month contract peaked at a two-week high of $1.0960 a lb. "If we get above $1.0960 then I think we'll have a shot at getting people excited," said a trader at a large investment bank.
"Just above that you've got a 40-day moving average and a 100-day moving average," he said. "But there is nothing on the charts indicating that we will do that (go higher)." This month, the benchmark contract hit a floor of $1.0350, down more than 19 percent from its peak this year of $1.2850 in January.
Volume amounted to an estimated 14,730 contracts, down from Thursday's tally of 23,940 lots.
Open interest futures rose 766 contracts on March 30 to 105,963 lots, exchange data showed.