Raw sugar futures closed mixed on Thursday in a session featuring switch business, and the moving of positions out of the spot contract will be the main market feature for now, brokers said. New York Board of Trade's key July raw sugar contract gained 0.02 cent to finish open-outcry trading at 8.47 cents per lb after moving from 8.38 to 8.48 cents.
It was an inside day as the range held within Wednesday's 8.37 to 8.55 band. Yesterday, the contract closed at 8.45 cents in the lowest finish for sugar since 8.40 cents on May 18, 2005. October sugar was flat at 8.81 cents. One contract aside, the rest slipped from 0.03 to 0.09 cent.
Intercontinental Exchange's NYBOT electronic platform for sugar showed the July contract up 0.09 cent at 8.54 cents a lb at 1:18 pm EDT (1718 GMT). "That's really the name of the game for now. We'll continue to see more of the same in switches," a long-time floor dealer said. "One index fund is done with the roll but you still have some more rolling to go in there."
On switches, open interest in July sank 36,868 lots to 129,306 lots as of June 13 while interest in October climbed 26,335 contracts to 333,843 lots. July goes off the board on June 29. Longer-term prospects for the market were clouded by a sizable surplus stemming from a record cane crop in top grower Brazil and an exportable surplus coming from India, the world's top consumer of the sweetener.
Most analysts believe the price of raw sugar could slide all the way down to 8.00 cents due to the heavy weight of the glut. Futures sagged at the start on Thursday, but quickly found support just under 8.40 cents in the July contract, dealers said.
Technicians pegged support for July delivery at 8.20 and 8.00 cents, with resistance at 8.74 and 9.00 cents. Open-outcry volume around noon was at 15,866 lots versus the previous tally of 46,222 lots. Call volume was 6,135 lots and puts 6,458 lots. NYBOT said Wednesday's screen trade was 154,941 lots and total volume 201,163 lots.
Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market dropped 9,088 lots to 6799,387 contracts as of June 13 Ethanol futures were untraded. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. The September contract fell 0.03 cent to 21.25 cents per lb and November eased 0.01 to 21.15 cents.
The rest added 0.02 to 0.07 cent. Screen volume traded Wednesday in the No 14 sugar market hit 311 lots and pit volume was at two lots. On the electronic No 14 sugar market, the September contract rose 0.07 to 21.35 cents at 1:19 pm.