The day started with lower values in reaction to No.11, and despite some early buying bringing the price briefly upward the trend seemed set with values slipping to consolidate quietly in the lower $680’s. Morning volumes were paltry and while the early afternoon drew a little more activity to the market with fresh selling emerging from the US to test beneath yesterdays $679.00 low, the market still appeared content to try and hold up with underlying consumer pricing proving sufficient to keep the losses in check. This was reflected in the white premium values where Oct/Oct’23 was comfortably sitting around $150, a couple of dollars firmer than last night. Some short covering led to a brief recovery in values, however with the specs not looking to push the market back upwards the OPct’23 contract set back to sit just ahead of the lows through the later afternoon. New session lows were seen at $676.80 during the final hour ahead of an Oct’23 settlement at $678.50, providing a quiet close to the week which may lead to some more near term selling as the market continues to find its place within the range.
Having held above 24c and recovered to a firmer close yesterday the longs will have been buoyed, however there was no continuation of the late movement and so an early fall back to the teens ensued on low volumes. Buying only began to appear in the 24.10 area and this served to provide a base through the rest of the morning as the day traders largely stood aside, the questions raised by the latest decline discouraging buying whilst they had no desire to sell into the scale buying. Moving into the early afternoon there was some fresh movement, and again it was lower with US specs pressing the agenda to test the 24c area once again, this time moving the market through to a low at 23.87. Again, there was no collapse of the nearby spreads with Oct’23/March’24 holding its recent support area with lows at -0.25 points and providing hope that the movement is simply an exploration back down through the range. A short covering rally followed to 24.17 but unlike yesterday the bulls were unable to build the market back up and once cover had been taken the market resumed in the 24c area. Pressure was maintained into the close to send Oct’23 into the weekend at 23.92, a poor conclusion which may see further support testing down towards last week’s low at 23.59.
