Raw sugar futures slipped early Friday on modest speculative and fund sales as the sweetener again took its cue from the generally soft tone of other commodity markets, brokers said. The ICE Futures electronic May sugar contract fell 0.19 cent to 11.94 cents per lb at 8:46 am EDT (1246 GMT), trading from 11.89 to 12.13 cents.
Trading volume Friday in the contract hit 7,028 lots at 8:46 am. "You got light funds and spec pressure, but it's real light, and you kind of feel they are just seeing what's down there. We could just rebound later," a financial house dealer said.
The traders said options screen trading was up and running on Friday, but it was too early to say if electronic options business would take off, dealers said. Pit trading in the soft commodity markets of ICE Futures US ended last month and trading of futures contracts has become wholly electronic.