Cotton futures on the New York Cotton Exchange settled lower in thin trading Thursday, in the absence of market-moving news and ahead of a US Department of Agriculture estimate of the 1998/99 crop scheduled for Friday, traders said. Mainly, market participants held onto their positions ahead of the release of the USDA world supply and demand agricultural estimates report scheduled for Friday. Most traders are looking for this report to reduce the official crop estimate for 1998/1999, analysts said. Meanwhile, sources confirmed that the exchange's spec and hedge report won't be released this week as scheduled but will be out some time next week instead. Exchange officials had no comment. Some downward pressure on prices Thursday might also have come from competitively priced cotton varieties from central Asia, some traders said.

Australian wool markets fall:

Australian wool prices fell to new four-year lows again this week at sales in Sydney and Adelaidebefore they made a positive turnabout to end the week on a firmer note, Wesfarmers Dalgety Ltd said on Friday. A total of 56,388 bales were offered with the National pass-in-rate for the week being 14 per cent. AWEX's Eastern Market Indicator fell 10 cents to 527 cents a kg clean in the week. With no sale in Fremantle this week, the Western Region Indicator remains at 496 cents a kg clean. The Australian Council of Wool Exporters said Wool International (WI) completed its legislated minimum sale commitment, of 90,000 bales, for the September 1998 quarter this week and is now accepting offers for the December quarter. The council said WI is in the invidious position of being expected on one hand to follow a Cabinet decision to freeze stockpile sales, but at the same time comply with contrary legislated responsibilities.

Coffee prices slip:

Despite tight supply of robusta coffee, dull trading marked by reduced offtake pushed down both arabica and robusta prices at the Indian Coffee Traders'Association (Icta) weekly auctions held here. "While the subdued response of the buyers pushed down arabicas by Rs 1 to 2 a kg, robustas were quoted lower and with the sellers undecided very small quantities were sold at Rs 1 to 2 lower than the last week's rate," a report of the Karnataka Coffee Brokers Private Ltd said. Currently coffee board and industry, including exporters and merchants, are locked in a tussle over allowing green robusta coffee imports under the open general license (OGL). Of the total of 5,10,852 kg of arabica category on offer only 1,21,895 kg or 23.86 per cent were sold and in the robusta category only 49,233 kg or 10.58 per cent of 4,66,260 forwarded for sale met with buyers.

Oil traders mull Vietnam Bach Ho offer: Oil traders said on Friday they were leaning towards accepting Vietnam's offer of a 16 cent premium for Bach Ho crude for the next term, but it was unclear whether Vietnam would get enough acceptances to garner the term volume it was seeking. In the most recentround of negotiations Petrovietnam Trading Co (Petechim) cut its offer for the term price of Bach Ho for the October-March term to a 16-cent premium over the formula, down from an earlier offer of 22 cents. The formula is the average of the Platt's daily and the Asian Petroleum Price Index (APPI) twice weekly quotations for Minas crude. Term buyers have been asked to submit their bids by Friday. Earlier this week, they submitted bids at a range of between nine cents and 15 cents. One Japanese trading company official -- who said his company did not plan to submit its response until late Friday afternoon -- said he believed some Japanese refiners and power utilities would agree to Vietnam's price.

Gulf crude market slow:

Gulf crude prices continued to be dragged down by surplus cargoes and an absence of demand in Asia as traders pondered where to move their uncommitted cargoes, market participants said on Friday. Few fresh deals were reported with the exception of 500,000 barrels of October Omansaid to have been sold by a European major to a US major at a discount of 35 cents per barrel to the official selling price. It was unclear whether this deal had been done before an Oman cargo that was earlier reported to have been sold at MPM minus 41 cents. Traders said the market for remaining October Oman and Abu Dhabi light crude grades was being discussed at a sharp discount, although talk was extremely light. Equity holders are keeping a close eye on the Brent/Dubai spread with the idea of taking their Gulf cargoes West.

US ACCESS energy prices rise:

US energy futures prices added slightly to daytime gains in after-hours trade Thursday, boosted by data showing a large US inventory drop, traders on ACCESS said. October crude oil futures settled sharply higher on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) Thursday after oil inventories at US refineries fell 6.7 million barrels last week to lower the nation's supply to 330 million barrels, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute(API). The lower supplies kept upward pressure on ACCESS prices overnight, with October crude up nine cents a barrel to $14.67. Volume for crude oil futures reached 1,115 on Thursday, with 891 traded for October by 1800 PDT. ACCESS unleaded gasoline for October rose 0.04 cent a gallon 42.89 cents a gallon. Volume reached 67 lots for all months traded.

Shanghai copper little changed:

Shanghai copper futures were almost unchanged in slow early trade on Friday amid uncertainties over the global economy, traders said. The most active December 1998 contract stood at 16,870 yuan($2,037) per tonne one hour after trading, unchanged from Thursday's close. It opened at 16,850 yuan and hit an intraday high of 16,890 and a low of 16,840. "Copper moved narrowly, reflecting the uncertain mood on the London Metal Exchange," a trader said. The LME three-months copper ended at $1,702 on Thursday, down $6 against the previous kerb close in lacklustre trading overshadowed by widespread uncertainty over the globaleconomy, traders said. Spot copper prices in Shanghai fell slightly to 16,000 yuan in early Friday trade from 16,050 on Thursday. Aluminium did not trade in the first hour.

Liffe grains close up:

Liffe wheat futures closed between 35 and 95 pence higher Thursday, off the days highs as fresh shipper selling late in the session eroded earlier gains, said brokers. The pound continued to weaken throughout the day, helping to boost prices. At 1605 GMT sterling traded at DEM2.8448, down from DEM2.86 90 traded late in London Wednesday. A fall in the value of the pound makes UK goods less expensive to foreign buyers, hence UK shippers can increase prices without jeopardizing competitiveness on export markets.

Japan to raise Asia rice aid:

Japan's main agricultural organisation said on Friday it would raise 1.04 billion yen to send more than 3,000 tonnes of rice and 65 million yen to Asian countries to help relieve a food shortage. A spokesman at the Central Union of AgriculturalCooperatives said it planned to gather the funds by December 15. He said it would send Japanese rice and money to Indonesia as well as to other countries in Asia. He declined to comment on whether aid might also head for famine-stricken North Korea, which last month launched what Japan believed to be a ballistic missile test over its territory. In a separate programme, the Japanese government has promised 600,000 tonnes of rice aid to Indonesia, which has been hit by a serious food shortage in recent months amid the country's economic woes and political shake-up.

Indonesia to open new palm oil plantations:

Indonesia's state-run plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara is planning 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of new palm oil plantations in the next three years, the official Antara news agency reported on Friday. The new plantations would have a total annual output of 1.2 million tonnes, the agency said. It quoted minister for state enterprises, Tanri Abeng assaying the plantations would beopened on the islands of Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, and Irian Jaya, on the western half of New Guinea island. Abeng said output from the new plantations would be about 25 per cent of the country's total crude palm oil production. Antara gave no further details. Indonesia's crude palm oil output is estimated to reach 5.9 million tonnes in 1998 while local demand is seen at around two million tonnes.

Chinese grain stocks safe:

Floods this summer caused minimal losses to the grain reserves of China's northeastern Heilongjiang province, the Futures Herald said on Friday. Heilongjiang, one of China's major breadbaskets, has total grain reserves of 25.85 million tonnes, 3.55 million tonnes of which had been threatened by floods, the newspaper said, quoting provincial grain officials. Of the reserves threatened by floods, 3.508 million tonnes had been kept "absolutely safe", the newspaper said. "The record flooding has not exerted great losses to grain stockpiles inHeilongjiang province," the newspaper said. The largely unscathed grain stocks had helped to stably grain prices in the province, the newspaper said without giving further details. The prices for rice and edible oils have rebounded in major cities in recent weeks, prompted by the worst flooding in nearly half a century.

Philippine coconut output seen down:

Philippine coconut output this year is likely to drop 10.7 per cent to 2.34 million tonnes in copra terms from 2.62 million tonnes last year, an official of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines Inc (UCAP) said on Friday. Early this year, UCAP had projected coconut output in 1997 to have reached 2.453 million tonnes. UCAP is the umbrella organisation of all the coconut millers, refiners and brokers in the country.