London robusta coffee futures fell on profit-taking on Friday, pressured by weakness in arabicas on talk of coming rains in Brazil, while white sugar fell on profit-taking and producer selling, dealers said.
London cocoa futures fell on profit-taking after Thursday's speculative short covering rallyres market was pushed lower by talk of coming rains in Brazil weighing on arabicas whose prices had previously risen on sustained dry weather in the world's top arabica growing country.
"The recent strength in New York had been on the back of dryness in Brazil. Now there is talk of rains in Brazil," one dealer said. Another dealer said, "We're seeing speculative long liquidation and profit taking."
Arabica coffee prices on ICE Futures fell sharply on Friday following talk of coming rain in top producer Brazil, after touching a 2-1/2 year high on Thursday. In London, November settled down $49 to $1,867 per tonne in brisk volume of 12,043 lots.
Dealers saw support in November at $1,847 and then at $1,722 and resistance at $1,961 and then at the 9-year peak of $2,026. Finland's largest coffee roaster Paulig said on Thursday it expected coffee prices to stay high even with good crops from world's two key producers, Brazil and Vietnam.
London white sugar futures fell on profit-taking and Brazilian producer selling as well as short selling by a large trade house, dealers said. Traders noted talk of Venezuelan buying of white sugar, but there was no immediate confirmation.
Dealers referred to profit-taking and Brazilian origin selling after December touched a 7-week high for the front month of $301.30 per tonne on September 19.
December closed at $278.50 per tonne, down $9.50 or 3.30 percent. The white-over-raws premium between the March contracts in London and New York narrowed from around $72 per tonne on Thursday to $66.50 per tonne on Friday. Dealers also talked of trade and speculative buying underpinning the market. Sugar beet production in Finland could end if farmers are reimbursed for giving up their sugar quotas, the Finnish agriculture ministry said on Friday.
London cocoa futures fell on profit-taking after Thursday's speculative rally to a peak of 1,004 pounds in December. December closed down 3 pounds or 0.30 percent to 996 pounds per tonne. Dealers said continuing concerns over black pod disease in West Africa gave some support to futures due to uncertainty over the extent of its impact on 2007/08 main crop supplies.