New York sugar down

Raw sugar prices closed largely easier on Wednesday on sales by small speculators as the market stayed pinned in a band and will likely be trapped there over the next few sessions, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's key March raw sugar contract shed 0.04 cent to end at 11.78 cents a lb., ranging between 11.72 to 11.86 cents. May ease 0.03 to 11.71 cents.
The rest were flat to 0.02 cent softer. "It's been extremely quiet. We're just hanging around unchanged. The specs would bid it (up) and the trade and producers would push it back.
It's going to take some doing to get us out of this band," a long-time floor dealer said, adding the March contract is moving between 11.60 and 11.86 cents.
Fundamentally, heavy fund interest combined with perceptions that top grower Brazil was funnelling more cane into producing the bio-fuel ethanol to stoke the rally in sugar.
Futures slipped at the start but got support from speculative accounts, dealers said. "We stalled again at 11.86 (cents, basis March), which is about the fourth time we've reached that area," one said.
Volume traded before the close amounted to 17,283 lots, versus the previous tally of 29,249 contracts. Call volume hit 4,253 contracts and puts stood at 3,693 lots.
Technicians said they feel resistance for the March contract would be at the contract peak of 11.91 and then 12 cents. Support would be at 11.50 and 11.40 cents.
Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market shot up 3,357 lots to 472,662 lots as of October 25. Ethanol futures were not traded. There were no quotes in the spot November ethanol contract.
US domestic sugar prices ended flat to higher. Traders took note of news of heavy damage to sugarcane farms from Hurricane Wilma when it struck Florida, the top sugar growing state in the United States.
The January contract climbed another 0.15 cent to 22.20 cents a lb. and March rose 0.05 to 21.85 cents. The rest were flat to up 0.08 cent. Volume done before the end of trade hit 967 lots, from the previous tally of 677 lots.