May’25 dropped to 19.43 on the opening as selling appeared in reaction to yesterday’s pullback, however the dip was brief and trading across the next couple of hours centred around overnight levels with the market holding calmly. The pattern extended through into the early afternoon with smaller traders clearly uncertain as to the next direction and so standing aside, and it was only once the Americas day was fully underway that the market started to find more interest with a move to new daily highs. The pace remained slow but little by little the gains accumulated and drew the price into the 19.70’s, why of the recent highs but sufficient to show green down the board. The greatest gains meanwhile were being seen for the March/May’25 spread, as they had been since early morning, as more enthusiastic buying extended the spread value out to 1.61 points and maintained the firm view heading into expiry. The pace of buying grew during the final couple of hours with the market eventually making another new recent high at 19.98, and with May’25 settling a single point beneath this mark at 19.97 it is well positioned to try and finally break the elusive 20c level.   

Month Open High Low Sett Chg Last Vol O/I
Mar’25 21.06 21.57 20.96 21.46 0.37 21.38 28,779 75,462
May’25 19.46 19.98 19.43 19.97 0.40 19.95 72,745 372,125
Jul’25 19.13 19.55 19.07 19.55 0.34 19.54 31,713 178,305
Oct’25 19.19 19.56 19.15 19.56 0.28 19.54 21,918 127,573
Mar’26 19.48 19.79 19.43 19.79 0.21 19.78 13,569 88,801
May’26 18.50 18.74 18.44 18.73 0.12 18.71 4,719 42,058
Jul’26 17.95 18.11 17.87 18.12 0.06 18.09 3,801 28,347
Oct’26 17.82 17.97 17.74 17.96 0.03 17.94 2,454 24,020
Mar’27 18.05 18.15 17.96 18.15            –   18.15 1,534 12,910
May’27 17.61 17.64 17.46 17.64 -0.01 17.64 1,117 5,843
Jul’27 17.34 17.37 17.19 17.36 -0.02 17.37 1,020 7,104
                 
Total             183,369 962,548

It was a subdued opening for the market with prices initially dropping back by a couple of dollars, and though some light supportive interest was being generated by longs as they looked to hold the structure it simply enabled a morning of sideways trading. A low was recorded at $552.10 just ahead of noon as part of this pattern, but we were well into the afternoon before some fresh confidence emerged and began to move the market beyond the early highs. A slow rise through the upper $550’s took place on moderate volume and this in turn provided the platform for the market to explore the recent highs through the final couple of hours. As the pace gathered May’25 was able to push through to another 3-mnoth high at $564.30, and while the progress stalled during the closing stages the market remained sufficiently firm to ensure a strong closing price would be recorded. This duly registered at $563.80, and with the May/Aug’25 still solid at $18.20 and the May/May’25 white premium little changed at $123.50 the market is positioned strongly at the end of a relatively quiet session to continue the technical push higher.  

Month Open High Low Sett Chg Last Vol O/I
May’25 554.00 564.30 552.10 563.80 9.10 563.80 10,197 47,865
Aug’25 536.20 545.90 535.20 545.60 8.70 545.20 3,450 22,944
Oct’25 526.70 535.50 526.00 535.30 8.00 534.80 1,503 9,897
Dec’25 521.00 528.10 520.60 528.10 6.30 527.70 588 4,095
Mar’26 519.60 525.00 519.10 525.00 4.60 524.70 300 4,041
May’26 516.10 520.00 515.70 520.00 3.00 519.40 93 1,778
Aug’26 512.10 515.00 511.40 515.00 2.00 515.00 16 1,390
Oct’26 506.50 508.60 505.80 508.70 1.00 508.10 23 871
Dec’26 503.60 503.60 502.50 505.40            –   503.00 14 751
Mar’27          –              –              –   504.50 -0.50 502.70 2 234
May’27          –              –              –   500.10 -0.50            –   185
Aug’27          –              –              –   496.20 -0.50            –                –  
Oct’27          –              –              –   495.50 -0.50            –                –  
Dec’27          –              –              –   494.30 -0.50            –                –  
Total             16,186 94,051

Jon Whybrow

Jon joined CZ in 1991, working in the Treasury department before moving to join the derivatives team in 1994. Over 30 years Jon has built up significant experience across derivatives markets and products, particularly sugar, and is now Head of Flow derivatives providing market execution services for CZ’s global client base. He is responsible for the market commentaries which are published each day on CZ app.

More from this author