NY juice ends up slightly as Hurricane Irene churns

NEW YORK: Orange juice futures settled with small gains Thursday on investor buying amid consolidation while Hurricane Irene churned off citrus king Florida and should head up the US East Coast.

Irene, the most powerful storm so far in the annual Atlantic hurricane season, is poised to strike North Carolina and then march up the densely populated East Coast. For stories on Irene

The benchmark November frozen concentrated orange juice futures added 0.50 cent to end at $1.6075 per lb, moving from $1.5995 to $1.632.

The level of investor interest dropped to its lowest level since April 1 as open interest slid to 24,759 lots as of Aug. 24, ICE Futures US data reported.

Volume traded was around 2,300 lots at 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT), around 15 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"We're not coming off so much because Irene is just the first storm and another one could take its place because this is still hurricane season," a dealer said.

The peak period when storms would threaten Florida, the biggest citrus growing state in the country, normally runs through the middle of October.

A storm hitting the central-southern Florida citrus belt could reduce estimates for Florida's 2011/12 citrus crop.

Influential private forecaster Elizabeth Steger was said to have pegged Florida's 2011/12 citrus crop at 142 million (90-lb) boxes, at the lower end of trade expectations it would come in from 140 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 Tuesday in the juice market hit 1,391 lots, which was the lowest level of business since July 27, ICE Futures US data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2011