Recent activity has seen the market pull back to the 18c area, and despite efforts to force the price further north and away from recent parameters initial efforts only reached 18.07 to remain beneath yesterdays highs. For some time now the market has had a contrarian leaning when compared to the macro and this remains the case with the relative apathy of the macro being disregarded and instead a surge in whites values drawing some fresh buying into the front of the board. Light scale selling initially limited the gains to the mid-teens however a more aggressive push midway through the afternoon was more successful in taking March’23 to 18.29, the highest level recorded since 30th August. Nearby spreads were positive in keeping with the spot nature of the buying, March/May’23 reaching 0.85 points and May/Jul’23 at 0.42 points, though here it felt as though the move was token against the flat price interest rather than a material shift. A final hour surge to 18.50 saw March’23 making new highs before settling at 18.46, the most positive performance for a while (a sign of London sugar week chatter perhaps) though some of work remains to be done with resistance at 18.65 to be conquered before we consider this a meaningful shift from the range bound conditions.
Recent gains have increased the positivity amongst specs, and keen to maximise their continued long position the market the day began positively in the upper $530’s. While morning activities were limited the tone had been set and so a further push followed to $541.50 ahead of the US morning, an impressive continuation of recent whites strength in context given the reluctance of No.11 to follow suit and a relatively neutral macro. The additional input from US based specs the sent prices shooting higher still with a couple of afternoon pushes seeing a high recorded at $550.00, the highest levels since mid-September when contract highs were made at $558.80 when being pulled along by the Oct’22 strength. There was no chance that the considerable spec long would let go of the market today and the gains were easily maintained through the rest of the afternoon before reaching a session high $552.30 at the close, ensuring a positive settlement level of $551.30 which brings contract highs into view to delight the fund longs.
