NEW YORK: Orange juice futures settled lower Wednesday on investor liquidation after weather forecasts showed citrus king Florida would enjoy mild weather in the coming week, brokers said.
The key March FCOJ contract fell 1.80 cents or 1.0 percent to conclude at $1.6815 per lb, trading from $1.651 to $1.71.
Total volume traded in the market Wednesday reached almost 2,600 lots, around 15 percent above the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Talk of cooler weather on Tuesday which prompted some short-covering in the market dissipated and sparked investor liquidation.
The National Weather Service said Florida may see patchy frost but the area should gradually warm over the next week.
"There's no freeze in Florida so these specs got out for now. There's also very little to be worried about in Florida during the New Year holiday," a dealer said.
Florida is the biggest citrus growing state in the country. Citrus-damaging freeze hit Florida in early January in both 2010 and in 2011, causing sizable damage to fruit production in the Sunshine State.
Traders said there was also a lot of switch trade being done which tends to increase the trading volume as players moved their positions out of the spot January contract before it goes into delivery notice next month.
Open interest came to 25,589 lots as of Tuesday, from last Friday's 25,160 lots, ICE Futures US data showed.
Volume traded on Tuesday stood at 4,823 lots, the exchange said.
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