NEW YORK/LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE were higher on Friday, ending the week up more than 1 percent, boosted by fund short-covering fueled by both technical factors and some concerns about hot, dry weather in top grower Brazil.
COFFEE
* March arabica coffee settled up 2.55 cent, or 2.49 percent, at $1.0495 per lb. The contract was up 1 percent on the week.
* "Today we broke some resistance that the market had found it difficult to break at the beginning of the year. When it broke 1.0440 the market had more traction," Rodrigo Costa, director of trading at Comexim USA, said.
* Dealers said dry weather in southern and central Brazil may be impacting the country's crop, though effects may be mitigated by wet weather in December and potential wetter weather ahead.
* Funds are believed to be holding a significant net short position although there have been no Commitments of Traders reports during the partial US government shutdown.
* Dealers said the robusta market lagged arabica and remained rangebound with roasters largely on the sidelines and some producer selling noted.
* March robusta coffee settled up $9, or 0.5 percent, at $1,544 a tonne.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar settled up 0.18 cent, or 1.40 percent, at 13.03 cents per lb. The contract was up 2 percent on the week.
* Oil prices jumped about 3 percent on Friday, rising after OPEC detailed specifics on its production-cut activity to reduce world supply, and on signals of progress in resolving the US-China trade war.
* Higher oil prices encourage increased use of cane in Brazil to make biofuel ethanol rather than sugar, and can therefore curb output of the sweetener.
* March white sugar settled up $4.70, or 1.35 percent, at $353.2 per tonne.
COCOA
* May London cocoa fell 11 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to 1,690 pounds a tonne. The contract fell 2.2 percent on the week.
* May New York cocoa fell $40, or 1.6 percent, to $2,340 a tonne. The contract fell 2 percent on the week.
* Dealers said New York cocoa remains rangebound with strong support at $2,300 and resistance at $2,370.
* Dealers noted fourth-quarter 2018 grindings data from Europe and North America this week showed slightly slower year-on-year growth than expected, but a record quarter was reported for Asia.
* Asia's fourth-quarter grind rose by 6.3 percent to 208,900 tonnes, the highest quarterly total record since the Cocoa Association of Asia began compiling figures in 2011.
* North American cocoa grindings increased 1.25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, a smaller rise than many had predicted, according to data from the National Confectioners Association on Thursday.
* Data earlier this week showed that European grindings rose 1.6 percent from the same period last year.
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