SOFTS-Sugar, coffee down as dollar jumps on Dubai worries
    LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - ICE coffee, sugar and cocoa futures fell with other commodities in early trade on Friday as the dollar jumped with investors fearing debt default in Dubai, dealers said.
   Dealers said they expected whites-over-raws premiums to remain robust due to expectations for strong Indian and Pakistani demand for physical white sugar.
   A weaker pound could bolster sterling-denominated London cocoa futures. Sterling fell on Thursday, hitting its weakest in a month against the euro and a basket of currencies, on worries about British banks' potential exposure to debt problems in Dubai. 
         
  

 MARKET NEWS
   * The yen hit a 14-year high versus the dollar and rallied broadly on Friday, while the dollar jumped against most other currencies as investors slashed risk exposure and carry trades on concerns about Dubai's debt problems. [ID:nGEE5AQ0HF]
   * Gold prices accelerated declines to fall 4.7 percent on Friday before recoiling slightly, as worries over debt problems in Dubai drove investors to cut positions, unleashing a broad sell-off across assets from commodities to equities. [ID:nSP328316]
   * Oil prices sank to a six-week low below $73 a barrel on Friday as fears of debt default in Dubai convulsed financial markets and the dollar rose as investors moved into safer assets. [ID:nSP294995]
   * Investors recoiled from risky assets on Friday and dumped shares in Asian banks and builders, fearing a Dubai debt default could reignite the financial turmoil of the credit crisis. [ID:nSP274826]
   
   FUNDAMENTALS
   * Australia's raw sugar production could rise 6.5 percent next year as cane growers plant more acres in response to prices for the sweetener rising to multi-decade highs, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd said on Friday. 
   * Sugar futures, which doubled in price this year, could fall early in 2010 when the market wakes up to a big cane overhang from Brazil's current harvest, despite a popular view that prices should remain buoyant. 
   * India, the world's biggest consumer of sugar, may extend a ban on futures beyond Dec. 31, farm minister Sharad Pawar said on Thursday. 
   * The eighth test on sugar beet delivered to refineries in Germany this season showed sugar content of 18.28 percent compared with 17.97 percent in the same test last year, the association of German sugar producers WVZ said on Thursday. 
   * Rain in Brazil's southeastern coffee belt will turn much heavier in the next five days, bringing added moisture to the soil as next year's crop continues the early stages of its development.
    
   Friday, 27 November 2009 16:47:48RTRS [nGEE5AQ0OB] {C}ENDS