Raw sugar futures closed marginally easier on Wednesday on speculative sales in a market becalmed by the fact most players went home due to the longest holiday break of the year, brokers said.
The raw sugar market will be shut on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Trading resumes on Monday. The New York Board of Trade's March raw sugar contract shed 0.01 cent to end at 11.47 cents per lb, dealing from 11.42 to 11.57 cents.
May lose the same to 11.59 cents. One contracts aside, the rest fell 0.04 cent. "It was pretty much on holiday mode today. The only thing you saw were locals who just jobbed it between the ranges. I still feel that overall the market is looking lower with the fundamentals bearish and the Technicals looking down," a veteran floor dealer said.
The bearish mood was underscored by news that sugar merchant Czanikow has declared that the bull run in sugar has come to an end after cane plantings increased sharply following a surge in prices to a 25-year high.
Czanikow raised its 2006/07 global sugar surplus forecast to 5.1 million tonnes, from a previous 3.1 million. The International Sugar Organisation pegged it at 5.8 million.
Futures relied on an initial flurry of speculative buying to open at its session high, but the inability to generate further interest prompted the same speculators to trade it down to its lows for the day, floor sources said. It then managed a small bounce after that. Technicians feel support for the March contract would be at 11.30, 11.24 and down to 11 cents.
They forecast resistance at 12 and then 12.30 cents. Volume before the close reached 22,355 lots, from the prior count of 31,469 lots. Call volume amounted to 13,463 lots and puts reached 2,229 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market rose 105 to 507,837 lots as of November 21.
The ethanol market was untraded. US domestic sugar prices ended mostly lower. The January contract shed 0.05 to 20 cents per lb and March eased 0.03 to 19.95 cents. The rest ranged from 0.10 cent down to 0.09 cent firmer. Volume before the close reached 321 lots, from the previous count of 642 lots.