Sugar #11 Mar ’22
There was no immediate continuation of yesterday’s sharp recovery as light morning selling sent March’22 back beneath 20c, however once concluded the price picked back up to unchanged and sparked some light day trader buying that pushed a small way through last night’s high to reach 20.19. Market depth showed signs of scale selling in place from the highs and with the buy side not finding any significant spec interest, so prices slipped back into the range. The arrival of traders in the Americas failed to bring any new spec interest to leave us to await the announcement of the most recent UNICA figures to see if that would trigger any fresh activity. The announcement revealed a crush of 12.55mmt cane / sugar production at 0.262mmt / mix 39.2 % / ATR 133.35 kg/t, and while these numbers were well down on the same period last year they were in fact a little better than expectations and signalled a pullback to 19.80 as longs added just 24 hours ago were thrown back out. Despite the selling there was a solid showing from the March/May’22 spread which only briefly traded back beneath unchanged levels on the dip, then sitting comfortably around 0.36 points through the afternoon despite the flat price remaining weaker. The final two hours saw an increasingly narrow range as traders stood back from the market ahead of tomorrow’s Thanksgiving holiday and it was with some relief that the grind to the close finally reached a conclusion. A choppy close saw prices zip around a 9-point range with March’22 settling at 19.93 as we head into tomorrows market holiday (and a 4-day weekend for many in the US).
Sugar #5 Mar ’22
The early part of today’s session saw nearby values fluctuate either side of unchanged before finding some light liquidation of longs to nudge lower. The decline was short-lived however and prices soon returned to positive ground as March’22 registered a new session high $519.70 on the back of spec buying of No.11 and the resultant white premium led bids moving the price upward on limited volume. Ordinarily this would be expected to lead to another spec led push upward but today was to see no such continuation as the buying concluded with prices quickly slipping back toward morning lows ahead of the US Day. With so little depth to the market within the range there was a sharp low volume fall during early afternoon that led March’22 back to $509.40, and though this led to some trade/consumer pricing coning into the environment it served only to ease prices away from the lows and leave prices sat comfortably to the centre of the broad range. Spread volumes were virtually non-existent today, leading to a rather flat board, while light white premium activity was only seen for March’22. Approaching the close prices had slipped back down toward the bottom of the range and though MOC buying registered a settlement at $511.20 it serves only to leave us looking toward further broadly sideways trading in the coming days.
