Arabica Coffee Slips on Supply, Weak Demand; Cotton Firms

  NEW YORK  -  Arabica-coffee prices ended within a cent of a more-than-four-year

low on Thursday as big supplies of the beans and tepid demand encouraged

selling.

  Arabica coffee for delivery in December on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange fell

1.4% to end at $1.1565 a pound.

  "Demand is very weak right now," said Andre Santos, a trader at Ally

Brazilian Coffee Merchants in Plantation, Fla. "Supposedly this is when

(roasters) start buying the commodity, but we have not seen a big buy."

  Roasters' demand usually increases in the Northern Hemisphere's autumn. But

with prices down almost 20% for the year, roasters appear to be waiting for

even lower prices due to large supplies, particularly from Brazil, the world's

biggest grower, traders have said.

  Futures of orange-juice concentrate for November dropped 2.1%, to $1.2775 a

pound. Prices have been falling as the current Atlantic hurricane season, which

ends Nov. 30, hasn't produced any storms that threatened groves in top U.S.

citrus grower Florida.

  Cotton for December settled 1% higher at 85.47 cents a pound in light trade.

  "Farmers don't really want to sell, and the mills don't really want to buy"

at current prices, said Chris Kramedjian, a risk-management consultant at

brokerage INTL FCStone.

  Raw-sugar for delivery in October fell 0.6%, to 17.51 cents a pound, while

the more actively traded March contract ended unchanged at 18.19 cents a pound.

  Cocoa for December ended 0.9% higher at $2,597 a ton.