Arabica coffee falls more than 4% as stocks rise; raw sugar up

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NEW YORK/LONDON — Arabica coffee futures fell more than 4% on Friday amid data showing an increase in stocks, but still had a net gain for the week. Raw sugar futures rose again after hitting a near 6-year high in the previous session, while cocoa was down.

COFFEE

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* March arabica coffee settled down 7.35 cents, or 4.3%, at $1.644 per lb. The contract still gained 3.95% in the week.

* Dealers said the recent run-up was largely technicals driven, and that recent data on stocks limited the advance.

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* Green coffee stocks in the United States rose by more than 70,000 bags at the end of November. Stocks are 9% higher than at this time last year.

* “Quite bearish versus seasonal -3% to -5%. Appears to confirm weak demand with stock build outpacing consumption in period of usual drawdown. Could be driven by strong Brazil exports and may see retracement in December,” said Ryan Delany, chief analyst at Coffee Trading Academy.

* ICE certified stocks continued to climb as well, reaching a five-month high of 753,981 bags on Friday. There were also 310,288 bags pending grading.

* March robusta coffee fell $12, or 0.6%, at $1,866 a tonne.

SUGAR

* March raw sugar rose 0.11 cent, or 0.6%, to 20.09 cents per lb. It gained 2.5% in the week.

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* The front month had risen to a peak of 20.73 cents on Thursday, the highest level since February 2017.

* Dealers said weaker energy prices capped gains on Friday, along with the possibility that India may allow additional sugar exports in January.

* A court decision related to ethanol in Brazil was seen as supportive.

* March white sugar settled up $1.80, or 0.3%, at $546.80 a tonne.

COCOA

* March New York cocoa fell $42, or 1.7%, to $2,475 a tonne, but the contract still rose 1% in the week.

* Speculators’ net short position in cocoa was reduced by 4,665 lots in the week to Dec. 13 to only 2,820 contracts, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday.

* March London cocoa fell 9 pounds, or 0.5%, to 1,966 pounds per tonne​. (Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira, Nigel Hunt and Maytaal Angel; Editing by Jason Neely, Louise Heavens and Shounak Dasgupta)