The day got off to a calm start with Jul’22 trading quietly either side of 18.90, holding a relatively tight range throughout the morning with many traders remaining to the side following recent struggles. With no spec interest of note prices started to slip back towards yesterday’s lows with Jul’22 drifting down to 18.75 where scale buying proved sufficient to gather the market. The announcement of UNICA numbers for the first half of April showed just 5.19mmt cane producing O.127mmt cane and a sugar mix of 25.95%, well below estimates which were already factoring in lower numbers than for the same period last year. This drew some buying back into the market with Jul’22 quickly pushing back above 19c and building to reach 19.29 over the next couple of hours. The change of sentiment ensured that prices continued to the upper end of the range with little liquidation seen, and while only a small step it does suggest that the market may be bottoming for the time being. Settlement at 19.23 is positive and will give specs some encouragement as we head into the final day of the month.
May’22 was well supported today with spread rolling taking the May/Jul’22 out to 0.20 points late in the afternoon. Another reduction in open Interest to 21,776 lots keeps things on course for a small delivery with today’s volume likely to bring another notable reduction tomorrow.
