(Adds comments, weekly price moves)
NEW YORK, May 29 (Reuters) – Raw sugar futures on ICE closed up on Friday after slumping to four-week lows on Thursday, with dealers viewing ample near-term supplies as priced in for now.
* Raw sugar settled up 0.13 cent, or 0.9%, at 14.06 cents per lb, having hit its lowest since late April on Thursday. The market lost 4.3% in the week.
* There has been a strong start to the sugar harvest in top grower Brazil, but broker ADMIS said “it might be too much to ask for Brazil’s sugar production to maintain the current strong pace”.
* It also noted concerns over the impact of the monsoon in No. 2 grower India.
* India forecast an El Niño-weakened monsoon in 2026 that will bring the lowest rainfall in 11 years, fuelling concerns over crops, food prices and growth in the world’s fifth-largest economy.
* Sugar’s recovery came despite a drop in oil prices on the back of a possible U.S.-Iran ceasefire extension. Higher energy prices are bullish for sugar as they often tempt cane mills to produce more ethanol fuel and less sugar.
* White sugar rose 2.9% to $438.20 a metric ton.
* Arabica coffee settled down 8.65 cents, or 3.2%, at $2.656 per lb, having settled up 1.6% on Thursday.
* A drop in coffee exports from No. 2 arabica grower Colombia is keeping market conditions tight in the near term, though supplies should improve sharply as an expected bumper harvest in Brazil gets underway.
* The harvest pace has been slow so far, however.
* Certified arabica stocks continued to fall, hitting the lowest since February at little over 435,000 bags.
* Robusta coffee fell 1.5% to $3,501 a ton.
* London cocoa settled down 112 pounds, or 3.6%, to 2,975 pounds per ton, having settled down 1.4% on Thursday. The market, however, gained 4% in the week.
* New York cocoa fell 4.3% to $3,923 a ton.
* The contract may retrace to $3,919 a ton, as it has more or less broken a support at $4,084, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao. (Reporting by May Angel and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Diti Pujara, Mark Potter and Alan Barona)
