Sugar #11 Mar ’22
A very quiet opening saw March’22 holding near to 20c however the price then resumed upward as the triggering of buy stops in the London whites hauled it up to 20.13. The more limited morning volumes then meant that we further stalled just shy of the highs, remaining quiet by steady ahead of the US morning. The arrival of the bigger hitting specs/funds drew some additional buying into the picture early in the afternoon and though the initial push topped out in the 20.20’s it proved to be only brief respite as stronger buying interest soon followed behind. Drivers still seemed to be macro related though we ignored the association to crude and left it to languish, instead following the traditional softs allied which led by coffee were thriving. Over the course of a couple of hours March’22 climbed all the way to 20.50, a level not seen since 11th October, with specs keen to capitalise and cement the bullish credentials with a view to challenging the 20.94 contract high dating back to August. Some liquidation was seen during the later afternoon with smaller traders keen to lock in some profits, however buying returned for the call to add gloss to an already positive technical picture with settlement at 20.42 a potential springboard to continue higher.
Sugar #5 Mar ’22
While yesterday’s performance showed merely a muted recovery it set the platform for a spectacular push higher during the early part of todays session as March’22 ran buy stops to spike upward to 5 week highs. Activity then calmed though it did so without giving back a great deal of ground, consolidation that provided a platform to continue testing higher as we moved into the afternoon. As we drew closer to the contract high mark at $524.70 there was no great increase in activity from the producer side, allowing the climb to continue on to record a new mark at $525.00. The move to new highs failed to yield any buy stops and so it was that prices again stalled, and while there was no obvious liquidation the lack of a spark will have disappointed many of the day traders hoping for the market to ignite. Activity remained at the upper end of the range through the final couple of hours to maintain a positive sheen for the flat price, though with March/May’22 slipping back from its high to be at $2 and the March’22 WP slipping back towards $73 the positivity was not universal. Settlement at the old contract high $524.70 leaves the market incredibly well poised however and despite the lack of any new fundamental guidance the near term suddenly appears brighter with scope to work higher.