Daily Market Price Updates and Commentary 21st January 2024

Raw Sugar Market

A marginally higher opening gathered buying and the market was soon putting recent weakness behind it with an initial rally to 17.57. This changed the dynamic amongst day traders with underlying scale buying and this fresh interest combining to encourage them to look to the long side, and while their buying was not too sizable through the morning it enabled the market to hold onto the early gains. Some liquidation was seen in conjunction with the US morning getting underway and Jul’25 dropped back to a new daily low at 17.36, but the lows were only briefly seen with trading soon returning to the 17.50 area. This proved to be the encouragement needed for the market to push further ahead with re-enthused day traders drawing out some spec short covering as we surged to 17.78, then maintaining the gains through into the final hour. There were no fireworks to end the day as prices simply edged along to record a Jul’25 settlement at 17.70, a solid gain with which to end the run of recent losses and ensure that recent rangebound parameters are maintained for a little longer. 

White Sugar Market

With the market falling back towards the recent lows there was some buying interest generated from end users and the resultant hedge lifting took the market up to $492.50 during the early stages. Prices then levelled out to consolidate these gains and throughout another quiet morning Aug’25 remained above $490.00 to ease some of the downside technical concerns. Into the early afternoon the market had a small wobble and dipped back to $488.20, but rather than reinstigate the spec selling it instead drew a reaction which led values steadily upward to new daily highs. These grew at a pace and extended Aug’25 back up to $498.80 before day traders started to lock in some profits, though in stark contrast to recent days there was no return of selling for the later stages and the market was able to hold on to most of its gains. There was also the first positive movement for days in both the spreads and arbs where Aug/Oct’25 moved back to $5.00 while Aug/Jul’25 was valued back around $107.50, and while neither represent a significant turnaround it will provide some encouragement to longs that the market retains a degree of resilience. The close saw Aug’25 settling at $497.70 ahead of another new high on the post close at $499.40, a positive conclusion which removes near term doubts and cements the market back within the range.