After the see-saw action of the past few sessions there was little indication as to which way the market would move today, and after opening higher at 21.42 the price soon moved lower and so provided no additional clarity. The morning was then spent edging along wither side of 21.30 with few traders even participating and no sign of the price committing to either direction, a pattern symptomatic of apathy regarding the current picture. Moving into the afternoon there were some small efforts to bring the flat price back above unchanged, but these soon faltered without troubling the opening high, and with the volumes so light one would have been forgiven for questioning whether traders had closed their books up for the year early. The afternoon brought little change to this scenario, with some widening of the range to 21.18 providing the only glimmer of interest as the market saw out an inside day. March’25 volume only just tipped over 30,000 lots as we reached the close, a poor figure even by recent standards, while the post close saw a burst of selling to send the market out at a new session low of 21.16.
Having started around overnight levels there was some pressure applied at the top of the board which sent March’25 quickly down to $548.70 before the market looked to stabilise. This narrowed the March/March’25 white premium value back towards $80 but there was nothing happening of any other interest as values then settled down to hold the early range. The price then proceeded to tick along quietly in the region of $550.00 for the next few hours on low volume, with the recent movements having dented confidence amongst smaller traders and so reducing their activity also. There was an effort made to push values downward during the early afternoon which extended the band down to $547.50, however it did not continue and so the general sideways pattern resumed. Prices remained down on the day and this week’s lows remain the most likely short-term target against the chart, but for today there was no move to even consider them. Instead, the price meandered along to a settlement at $550.40 which changes nothing for another day. March/March’25 meanwhile pulled back up from its morning lows and concluded the day only marginally lower at $81.70.
