Sugar #11 Mar ’22
A mixed opening soon gave way to weakness with light selling pushing the price down to 19.14 with some light scale buying filled along the way, however from here things settled and the price became confined to a tight band for several hours. Our reluctance to climb back higher came despite a mixed macro and increasingly it felt as though the reluctance of specs to pursue a fruitless cause with further buying at the present time is simply leading to some further de-risking ahead of the holiday period. A little more selling hit the front of the board to send March’22 to 19.01 early in the afternoon however the 19 handle subsequently held firm and the remainder of the day played out slowly in front of the lows on increasingly small volume. Through the flat price struggles there was some support emerging for the March/May’22 spread as it peeped above 0.40 points before ending the day still positive at 0.39 points. March’22 settled 19.11 following some late position squaring and while the day will classify as a weak performance the overall picture still appears to be broadly sideways within a generous 18.50/19.50 band.
Sugar #5 Mar ’22
The retreat back down towards $500 this week has undermined spec hops that we could maintain a push higher ahead of year end and despite a mixed macro this lack of confidence was evident early on as March’22 slumped down to $498.10. The move was largely due to a lack of buying and as a little more interest emerged from consumers/end users, so the market began to stabilise, holding a sideways pattern in the upper $490’s. A small push up early in the afternoon failed to gain any momentum and once long liquidation sent the price back to the lows so we became condemned to further sideways consolidation at the bottom of the daily range. Spreads had been under pressure early on, however as the afternoon wore on so that picture changed with the middle/back of the board finding its bids backing away and so levelling the picture back out a touch. The close was uneventful to leave March’22 settling at $498.00 and while this leaves us settling negatively ahead of the weekend the overall picture suggests we will continue to play within the wider range of the past 3 weeks
