Early trading saw March’23 flit either side of overnight levels before settling down to hold onto moderate gains in the 20’20’s through the rest of the morning. Trading was far calmer than the past couple of sessions with the long holders content to provide underlying support, and while there was a small push up to 20.44 as we moved through the afternoon it had no substance and the market returned to the range once more. Spreads were a touch firmer due to the underlying March’23 support however volumes remained light with the market merely treading water ahead of tomorrows year end. There was no activity of interest as we merely drifted through to the close, and although the final stages saw a little more movement against position squaring it merely served to leave March’23 closing at 20.29 to conclude a very dull inside day.
London whites commenced positively and despite trading to $556.00 soon afterwards quickly regained the positive momentum. The upward movements were being made despite a slow No.11 market and relatively neutral macro, widening both the nearby spreads and premiums by a few dollars as the flat price climbed to $565.00 by early afternoon. This went some way to filling the significant $560.60 / $571.00 chart gap which opened yesterday, however although activity remained to the upper half of the established range there was no further strengthening in price as the lack of outside support held things in check. Volumes were moderate at best throughout the afternoon with the market suffering from low participation due to the Christmas/New Year holiday period though we remained near to session highs as the close drew near. March’23 ended the day at $561.80 with the March/March’23 white premium still strong at $114.50 and March/May’23 settling at $23.70, providing a steady footing as we move into the final trading session of the year.
