Sugar #11 Mar ’22
A lower opening was quickly forgotten as some light buying began to filter into the market, and despite the fact that things remain very quiet prices were able to edge upwards to the 19.90 area over the course of the morning. Last night’s COT as expected showed a modest increase in the net spec long to 173,835 lots and it seemed that as our day progressed we remained firmly in the hands of the small specs and algo’s with little other interest to be found. Brazilian producers returned from their long weekend to find some assistance from the USDBRL as it moved back to 5.50 but still had no interest in pricing, and while the flat price extended towards 20c and pulled the March/May’22 spread out to 0.26 points the upwards progression stalled some way shy of yesterday’s 20.12 high. With prices remaining steady there were further efforts to the upside during the later afternoon but these too stalled just above 20c leaving us locked within an inside day. Closing activity was just beneath the highs to achieve settlement at 19.99, though there remains no end in sight to the broadly sideways prognosis.
Sugar #5 Mar ’22
Light buying over the course of the morning was sufficient to reverse some of the damage inflicted by yesterday’s spec liquidation, however it took very little effort to get things moving such was the lack of selling interest on show. The recovery was being made in spite of a neutral macro and seemed to simply be a re-levelling as we continue to ascertain where within the recent range we should be sitting. For today at least the answer seemed to be at the upper end with buying continuing to edge the price upward, though with volume at only 3,000 lots including AA’s it was fair to say that most potential participants remain side lined. Spreads and premiums were barely traded though on the limited interest March/May’22 extended out to $1.70 while March/Mar’22 WP nudged to $76. A late sell off pushed March’22 back down to mid-range while sending the premium scuttling back to $73, establishing a March’22 settlement value at $513.70 to leave us still locked firmly in the range.
The Dec’21 expiry as expected to saw 5,678 lots (283,900mt) tendered, with details as per below:
