"It is technical buying and talk about hotter weather than normal in Brazil at the weekend. I think that has sparked a short-covering rally," one London dealer said. Funds are believed to be holding a significant net short position although there have been no Commitments of Traders reports during the partial federal 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 was up $8 or 0.5 percent, at $1,543 a tonne. March raw sugar was up 0.03 cents, or 0.2 percent, at 12.88 cents per lb supported by higher energy prices.
Oil prices rose more than 1 percent on Friday after an OPEC report showed its production fell sharply last month, easing some concerns about prolonged oversupply. 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 rose by $1.10, or 0.3 percent, to $349.60 a tonne. May London cocoa fell 7 pounds, or 0.4 percent, to 1,694 pounds a tonne. 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 (NCA) on Thursday.
Data earlier this week showed that European grindings rose 1.6 percent from the same period last year. 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. May New York cocoa fell $27, or 1.1 percent, to $2,342 a tonne.