US raw sugar futures closed 3 percent higher on Tuesday, shooting up from negative territory to become the day's best performer on the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, on trade and fund buying. Coffee and Liffe sugar futures also reversed higher in light volume, as much of the commodity complex turned upward. Cocoa, which settled before the commodity turn-around, finished lower.
"A lot of commodities are coming back. I think the month-end crowd are coming in to replace positions that were probably taken out because of the excessive volatility that we saw earlier this month," said Luis Rangel, vice president for commodity derivatives with ICAP North America. ICE March raw sugar surged 0.83 cent, or 3.1 percent, to close at 27.33 cents per lb, dealing in a wide 2-cent range.
Raw sugar posted the biggest gains of all 19 commodities on the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, followed by corn and coffee. For raw sugar, trade buying below 26 cents per lb, basis March, also was a buoyant factor. ICE March arabicas jumped 3.40 cents, or 1.6 percent, to finish at $2.1055 per lb, dealing in a wide range from $2.0145 to $2.1160. ICE March cocoa futures dropped $35 to settle at $2,804 per tonne. Total volume was thin at just over 8,000 lots, down 53 percent from the 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.
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