Having set back beneath 18.00 the market did not attract a great deal of fresh physical interest, and so while there was an element of hedge lifting taking place its impact was limited. Across a quiet morning Oct’24 nudged up to a high of 18.09 against this, but with few other buyers to be found the price eased back down the narrow range to be showing little change by the time that US traders joined the fray. This drew some fresh spec selling into the environment which knocked the price down to 17.86, placing the market a little closer to the early month 17.64 low mark. A further nudge down to 17.81 followed but the lack of size from the sellers meant that the recent lows were never targeted and instead a short covering rally pulled the market back up to the 18.00 area. This recovery didn’t sustain and while the remainder of the session played out within the range it was small trader/spec selling through the closing stages that sent prices out lower. Oct’24 settled at 17.88 and moving into tomorrow it seems that some traders still have that 17.64 low in their sights.
It was an incredibly slow start to today’s session and following some mixed movement over the first hour the price settled down in the $516.00 area to be showing token gains. These were maintained through into the early afternoon, but with so little volume showing to influence the price then fell away against spec selling for No.11 which the whites followed on the back of the white premium value. The price quickly fell towards $512.00 and then moved a touch further to a session low $511.20, though such remained the thin nature of the volume that it was difficult to read much significance into the movement. A recovery followed which saw Oct’24 back to a small credit as the final hour approached, but even at this stage Oct’24 had barely traded 1,800 lots for the day, a paltry amount under any circumstances. There was to be no resurgence and instead the final hour saw prices slip back down the range to end near to the lows, with Oct’24 concluding at $513.30. There was a little late Oct/Dec’24 activity to bring volume up slightly, with the spread closing at $6.60, while Oct/Oct’24 was similarly showing little change at $119.10.
