NY juice finishes mixed in largely switch trade

NEW YORK: Orange juice futures settled mixed Thursday in mostly switch trade as players moved their positions out of the spot month before it goes into delivery by the end of the month, analysts said.

The benchmark November frozen concentrated orange juice futures added 0.10 cent to close at $1.645 per lb, moving from $1.61 to $1.65.

The spot September contract fell 4.30 cents to end at $1.744.

The level of investor interest dropped to its lowest level since April 7 with open interest dropping to 25,839 lots as of Aug. 17, ICE Futures US data reported.

Volume was around 1,400 lots at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), nearly 50 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Price Group analyst Jack Scoville said juice futures came under pressure from weakness across the commodity complex and the switch business, in fairly light dealings.

The market derives some support from the fact that it is still the middle of the hurricane season for Florida, the leading citrus grower in the country.

Most storms during hurricane season which could hit Florida form from late July through the middle of October.

The market has digested the estimate of influential private forecaster Elizabeth Steger who was said to have pegged Florida's 2011/12 citrus crop at 142 million (90-lb) boxes, at the lower end of trade expectations from 140 million to 150 million boxes.

Louis Dreyfus pegged the crop at 146 million boxes. In 2010/11, the Florida crop stood at 140 million boxes.

Volume traded Wednesday in the juice market hit 2,978 lots, slightly higher from the previous 2,861 lots, ICE Futures US data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2011