NEW YORK: Orange juice futures closed Thursday at a fresh one-month low on investor sales, dropping for the third session in a row, with the momentum of the fall seen pushing the market lower in the days ahead, analysts said.
Benchmark March frozen concentrated orange juice fell 0.95 cent to finish at $1.8975 per lb, trading from $1.8645 to $1.9365. It was an inside day since the range was within Wednesday's $1.8625 to $1.9625 band. It was the lowest close on a spot basis since Jan. 17, Thomson Reuters data showed.
March hit an all-time high of $2.2695 about two weeks ago on speculation that the United States might ban Brazilian juice imports.
The market barely reacted to the latest estimate of Florida's 2011/12 citrus crop from the US Agriculture Department's monthly supply/demand report. USDA forecast the crop at 146 million (90-lb) boxes, from 147 million boxes in last month's report. The trade had been expecting the estimate to be unchanged to a few million boxes lower.
The market continued to pull back from the record highs hit over fears that Brazil juice imports may be banned for using a prohibited fungicide. Those fears have apparently eased.
Brazil is the world's top citrus producer, accounting for half of all US juice imports and 10 percent of all US supplies. Brazilian juice is used by leading US producers such as Pepsico's Tropicana and Coca Cola's Minute Maid in a blend with oranges from Florida.
Given the uncertainty over Brazil, investors have been reducing their exposure in the juice market. Open interest, an indicator of investor presence in the market, stood at 25,211 lots as of Feb. 8, ICE Futures US data showed.
Volume on Thursday amounted to nearly 2,000 lots late in New York business, about a third under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
On Tuesday, the exchange said 4,133 lots were traded.
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