NEW YORK: Orange juice futures closed higher Monday on tight stocks and some winter premium buying in a holiday shortened week, brokers said.
Benchmark January FCOJ increased 1.65 cents to end at $1.7855 per lb, ranging from $1.769 to $1.80. Total volume traded Monday reached over 1,500 lots, over a fifth below the 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed. The cold storage report due out on Tuesday is again expected to show a drawdown which is expected to underscore the tight supply scenario.
The market has also been propped up by winter premium buying ahead of the northern hemisphere winter when possible freezing weather could damage output in Florida's $9.1 billion citrus industry.
""We're getting close enough to the time when weather forecasts can change on a dime and the situation can get messy," said Country Hedging Inc senior analyst Sterling Smith. A freeze struck Florida in 2010 and in 2011, causing damage to fruit and stressing citrus trees.
Forecaster Telvent DTN said Florida, the biggest citrus grower in the US, will see light showers before locally heavier rains hits during the weekend.
Technically, the market has also raced past previous resistance at $1.74 and $1.75 and is now taking aim at levels starting at $1.80 and then up to $1.85, basis January.
Open interest came to 27,396 lots as of Nov 18, from the previous tally of 26,804 lots, ICE Futures US data said.
Volume traded Friday was at 1,754 lots, from the previous tally of 1,465 lots, exchange figures showed.
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