Raw sugar futures ended easier on modest speculative sales with many players out ahead of the Sugar Club industry dinner later on Wednesday, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's July raw sugar contract fell 0.09 cent to conclude at 17.38 cents a lb, trading from 17.26 to 17.57 cents. October lost 0.10 to 17.71 cents. The rest shed 0.01 to 0.08 cent. "It was brutal.
The locals would lean on it and then you get some trade buying below and come back. The locals got out late and most of the bigger guys are busy with their clients in town for the dinner," a long-time floor dealer said.
Fundamentally, the market is monitoring the harvest of the main center-south cane crop in top grower Brazil and pondering what will eventually be the split between sugar and ethanol production in the South American country.
The elimination of the European Union's sugar supports for its farmers is also seen giving a boost to values in the months ahead, industry officials said. Futures opened at their high for the session, lost ground from speculative sales and then rebounded from trade buying going into the close of business, dealers said.
"It's your typical pre-dinner trading session. Just light and thin," one said. Technicians believe support in the July contract is at 17 and 16.80/90 cents, with resistance at 17.50 and 18 cents. Volume before the close stood at 26,578 lots, against the previous count of 58,994 contracts.
Call volume touched 8,458 lots and puts hit 3,271 lots. On a busy day, volume could easily hit 80,000 to 100,000 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar contract rose 1,828 to 491,563 lots as of May 9.
The ethanol market was untraded. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. July slipped 0.01 to 23.61 cents a lb and September shed 0.02 to 23.63 cents. One contract aside, the rest were flat. No trades were reported in the market before the close, against the prior tally of 118 lots.