With the notable exception of some metals contracts the macro picture was rather more subdued today, however moderate losses elsewhere in no way filtered out to sugar with a quiet morning sat between 17.91 and 18.02. Still there is a lack of desire from specs to push higher, with recent failures either side of 18.00 clearly deterring them, and so reaching the start of the US-day we found the market making marginal new session lows. These quickly reversed and contrary to morning expectations the specs did manage to push March’23 on to 18.10, the highest levels recorded since 14th September, but despite repeated efforts this levels provided a ceiling through the afternoon. Eventually the refusal to move any higher triggered some spec liquidation to a new low of 17.91, before stability resumed. By now the macro had recovered to be largely positive, aided by the headlines that Opec+ will cut production by 2m barrels per day, however sugar remained resolute in holding the range, continuing toward the close within the 17.90’s and settling at 17.95 to leave the broad picture unchanged.
The market built upon yesterday’s strong recovery with some early buying appearing to continue the momentum and take Dec’22 up to $539.00. With no back-up from either No.11 or the macro these gains proved difficult to maintain with the rest of the morning seeing a gradual retreat through the early range which in turn dropped white premium values down (March/March’23 trading below $99.00). Macro recovery during the afternoon did pull Dec’23 back up to $537.50, however there was no real spec interest leaving the market to maintain a contrarian path through the afternoon which eventually led to session lows at $531.80. Spreads remain only lightly traded with the bulk of the volume confined to the front month and so the later stages became even more of a non-event than that which had preceded, the impact of London Sugar week clear from the inactivity while meetings and lunches take place. The closing stages saw Dec’22 either side of unchanged before finally settling a touch higher at $534.60 to bring a slow day to a conclusion.
