NEW YORK: Orange juice futures closed higher Monday on investor buying sparked by the release of a bullish private crop forecast of Florida's 2011/12 citrus crop although the market finished below its highs for the day on profit-taking, analysts said.
Influential private forecaster Elizabeth Steger was said to have pegged Florida's citrus crop at 142 million (90-lb) boxes, at the lower end of trade expectations it would come in from 140 million to 150 million boxes.
Benchmark September frozen concentrated orange juice futures ended up 2.35 cents at $1.6885 per lb after trading $1.6665 to $1.725.
The level of investor interest remained weak, with market open interest dropping to 26,570 lots as of Aug. 12, its lowest level since April 12, ICE Futures US data reported.
Volume was around 3,100 lots at 2:26 p.m. EDT (1826 GMT), over a quarter under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
"We had a small pop when the number (from Steger) was lower than expected, but we could not stay up and got hit by some profit-taking," a dealer said.
Fundamentally, the market is still in the middle of hurricane season and investors are keeping an eye on the Atlantic basin in case a storm develops in the area, market sources said.
With Steger done, the market will wait for the release of the Florida citrus crop estimate from trade house Louis Dreyfus.
Volume traded Friday amounted to 4,561 lots against the previous tally of 5,426 lots, ICE Futures US data showed.
Copyright Reuters, 2011
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