Having achieved a strong performance yesterday in conjunction with the Jul’23 option expiry the market continued the positive tone with early gains recorded across the board. Jul’23 touched to 26.27 before easing back down through the range to reduce the gains to single digits, though with the sentiment from specs remaining positive it was not long until the market was looking higher once again. While no attempt to break above yesterdays highs was being made the move did extend the range up to 26.32 before further yo-yoing about within the range, maintaining the positive sentiment for the busier afternoon period. With the wider macro again showing positively there was little prospect that the market would reverse, though for a brief period there would have been concern amongst the longs with a drop to 25.96 that was quickly gathered up. This in turn provided the momentum to mount a more sustained push upward and with buying coming into the front two prompts the market was able to break above yesterday’s 26.41 mark to reach 26.49 (Jul’23) and 26.14 (Oct’23) to sit firmly with an hour of the week remaining. This strength was maintained through to the bell, and while there was no further extension of the range a Jul’23 settlement level at 26.43 leaves a constructive technical picture heading into the 3-day Juneteenth holiday weekend.
We have written this week of how the whites are acting as a mere passenger of the wider sugar and macro worlds at present, so it was with some surprise that the early moves were positive with Aug’23 jumping by more than $9 initially before falling back to $686.50. The lows proved to be short-lived, and the market happily moved back to the $690 area with some white premium buying helping things along, the plunge in white premium values drawing some interest at last. There remains a reluctance to drive the flat price upward, but with the Aug/Oct’23 spread also attracting some good buying as it moved back to a premium the market was being sufficiently well supported to remain above $690 through into the early afternoon. The spread accelerated up to $5.10 and in so doing helped the Aug’23 to a 2-week high at $702.50, the first glimmer of some technical strength which could reinvigorate the market from the current malaise. Through the rest of the afternoon the market continued at the upper end of the range, paving the way for new highs to be recorded on the close as SUg’23 settled at $702.50. Monday sees the No.11 market closed for the Juneteenth holiday; it will be interesting to observe how the whites react to todays stronger showing with less outside noise to influence proceedings.
