Arabica coffee felt some spillover support from robusta while cocoa futures inched down on West African selling pressure.
"We had a bit of a macro recovery early in the day, it's now turned sour. A lot of people are just trying to make sense of the volatility we saw in the markets," said Luis Rangel, vice-president of commodity derivatives with ICAP North America in New Jersey.
Raw sugar tumbled 6.5 percent Thursday and arabica dropped to a five month low, but both markets recovered to settle firm.
ICE sugar futures fell along with other commodities on Friday, pressured further from expectations of a rise in cane plantings in India, the world's No. 2 sugar producer, in 2011/12 and by prospects that India could approve further open general license (OGL) exports in coming months.
"If the next couple of months prove to have good rainfall then it's conceivable that the authorities might widen OGL export permits to a further 500,000 tonnes," VM Group and ABN AMRO said in their latest Agricommodities Monthly report.
India's government on Thursday allowed 500,000 tonnes of unrestricted sugar exports.
"The Indian export release will affect the third-quarter trade flow, but it seems worries about Brazil's output are still preeminent," said Nick Penney of brokerage Sucden Financial, about the market still underpinned by Brazil's situation.
ICE October raw sugar futures eased 0.08 cent to finish at 26.00 cents a lb, while Liffe August white sugar closed up $1.30 at $734.60 per tonne.
Europe's debt problems helped the dollar index rebound, which pressured oil and, in turn, other commodities.
In the week ending June 21, speculators increased their net long position on raw sugar futures and options to the highest since May 20. The net long positions reached 94,907 lots in the latest week, post-market data released by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed.
Liffe robusta coffee clawed back losses from the past three sessions on investor buying, while ICE arabicas corrected up from Thursday's five-month lows.
Dealers talked of tight availability of robustas before the next Vietnamese harvest.
"You have a very tight crop in Indonesia. You also have rising differentials in robusta so that's the supportive side," Rangel said.
Liffe September robustas surged $103, or 4.6 percent, to settle at $2,319 a tonne. ICE September arabica coffee rose 1.80 cents to settle at $2.5050 per lb.
New York coffee is expected to collapse to $1.9725 per lb over the next three months, based on its wave pattern, according to Reuters analyst Wang Tao.
Speculators turned net short in arabica futures for the first time since June 2010, taking on their biggest net short position since May 2010 at 7,114 lots, CFTC data showed.
RISKY ASSETS
ICE cocoa futures reversed lower in rangebound dealings, with selling from the world's biggest producing region West Africa weighing on prices, both in New York and London.
September cocoa on ICE eased $23 to close at $2,964 a tonne, while London September cocoa fell 13 pounds to finish at 1,881 pounds per tonne.
A large 2010/11 surplus weighed on the cocoa market as favorable weather in West Africa, which supplies two thirds of the world's cocoa, has led to a bumper 2010/11 crop.
Speculators trimmed their net short position in US cocoa by 3,806 contracts to 8,706 contracts.
Copyright Reuters, 2011