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CSCE coffee barely changed in sleepy market

NEW YORK: CSCE coffee futures settled a tad higher on Friday, in quiet, unenthusiastic activities, with locals and speculators once again the main participants, traders said.

"It was an inside trading day, quiet. People are just waiting for the Commitments of Traders report this afternoon. It seems to be holding, although it's not rallying," one Miami-based broker said.

Arabica contracts across the board closed 0.10 cent higher, with key March arabica settling at 114.70 cents a lb, trading 115.40-113.70 cents. May ended the day at 117.40 cents a lb, ranging between 118.00 and 116.50 cents.

Locals and speculators made another early attempt to test the higher end of the current price range, but reversed and sold on a lack of additional buying, traders said.

"It's still the same old story of a lack of follow through to the upside," a broker said.

Traders and brokers said they expected Friday's Commitments of Traders report to show funds holding a net long position of around 6,000 to 8,000 lots.

"I think you'll get a drop in the longs," one trader said.

In the previous report, investment funds, or non-commercials, were reported to be holding a net long position of 9,672 lots, with commercials holding a net short position of 12,874.

Fundamentally, Colombia's National Coffee Federation is for the time being shying away from making any dire predictions about the total harvest.

Asked about a report earlier this week that federation chief Jorge Cardenas sees a 1999/2000 harvest of 8.0 million to 8.5 million (60-gk) bags, down from a 9.3 million bag forecast in December, Cardenas' right-hand man John Naranjo, the federation's commercial manager, said he had no idea where the information had come from.

Technicians said that resistance for key March contract was around 118-120 cents. Support was pegged at 110-109.50 cents.

Volume traded reached an estimated 4,985 lots on Friday, against Thursday's official volume of 8,055 lots. Call volume reached an estimated 1,495 lots, whilst puts were seen at 1,313 lots.-Reuters