SOFTS-Sugar, coffee ease, digest U.S. jobs data

* Fresh cash offtake could push sugar out of current range

* Improving crop weather in Brazil

LONDON, Nov 6 - ICE sugar, coffee and cocoa futures drifted down in commodity-wide selling on Friday as dealers digested higher-than-expected U.S. jobless data.

The U.S. jobless rate hit a 26 1/2-year high of 10.2 percent last month as U.S. employers cut 190,000 jobs, posting a somewhat weaker performance than predicted by economists polled by Reuters before the data's release.

Following the news, sugar, coffee and cocoa futures edged down in thin dealings with other commodities, while the dollar and crude oil prices fell.

Talk that the EU Commission was about to grant a large tonnage of 2009/10 export licences, also may have weighed on sugar futures, dealers said.

There was no immediate confirmation of any award of licences.

Fresh physical offtake was required to give the sugar futures market renewed impetus, dealers said.

"At the moment we're stuck in a 21-25 cents a lb range," said David Sadler, a senior sugar futures dealer.

Sugar dealers were keeping a close eye on more favourable weather patterns in Brazil after heavy and persistent rains delayed harvesting in the world's top producer and exporter.

They were also tracking the outlook for Indian buying in 2009/10, with several anticipating a hefty import requirement of 6-7 million tonnes that would underpin prices.

ICE March raw sugar futures were down 0.11 cent to 22.55 cents per lb at 1621 GMT, while London (Liffe) December white sugar was down $5.1 to $580.10 per tonne in modest volume of 3,189 lots.

British sugar refiner and sweetener group Tate & Lyle Plc warned on Friday of pricing pressures for U.S. corn sweeteners, its biggest single market, after reporting a 13 percent dip in first-half profits.

TROPICAL STORM IDA

Coffee futures inched down as dealers focused on tropical storm Ida which hit eastern Nicaragua on Thursday, although the initial impression was that the depression was not likely to trigger a reaction to futures prices.

Tropical Storm Ida slammed into Nicaragua's Caribbean coast on Thursday but coffee and sugar producers in the Central American nation said their crops were likely to be safe from major damage.

Harvesting of arabicas has been under way in Nicaragua since October.

"The storm is a supporting factor, but volumes are very thin," one London-based coffee dealer said.

ICE December arabica coffee futures were down 2.05 cents to $1.4005 per lb, while Liffe January robustas were down $3 to $1,442 per tonne.

Cocoa futures were steady in slim volumes, pressured by harvests in West Africa, the world's main cocoa growing region, dealers said.

ICE December cocoa was down $8 to $3,210 per tonne, while Liffe March cocoa was down 2 pounds to 2,145 pounds per tonne in low turnover of 2,858 lots.