NY juice ends higher as market recovers from sell-off

NEW YORK: Orange juice futures finished higher Thursday on speculative short-covering as the market recovered from a fall in the prior session to a 4-1/2 month low, analysts said.

"We were so oversold a bounce was to be expected. I don't know though if we're done going lower though," a dealer said.

The key September frozen concentrated orange juice futures increased 5.00 cents to close at $1.6385 per lb, moving from $1.592 to $1.644.

On Wednesday, the contract settled at $1.5885 in the lowest finish for the spot juice contract since March 22.

It was the first time in seven sessions the market closed higher. Since the spot contract traded at a session peak of $2.048 on July 11, the market has lost 22.56 percent in value when it traded at its session low on Wednesday.

Investors have fled and this could be seen in market open interest which dropped to its lowest level since May 11 at 29,027 lots as of Aug. 10, ICE Futures US data reported.

Volume was around 3,100 lots at 1:47 p.m. EDT (1747 GMT), about 50 percent above the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The trade is now waiting for the first private estimates of the upcoming 2011/12 Florida citrus crop which will be released next week.

Forecaster Elizabeth Steger is said to be releasing her report next week and she will be followed almost immediately by major trade house Louis Dreyfus.

There is also no sign a tropical storm is threatening Florida, the top citrus growing region of the country, at this time. Forecaster Telvent DTN said the state will see scattered showers through Monday.

The US National Hurricane Center said a low pressure system near Florida has only a 10 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone.

Volume traded Thursday in the juice market hit 10,827 lots, the highest since June 21, ICE Futures US data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2011