NY juice settles mixed in switch business

NEW YORK: Orange juice futures settled mixed Friday in switch trade as the market largely ignored volatile commodity markets as players concentrated on moving their positions out of the spot month before it goes into delivery by the end of August, analysts said.

The benchmark November frozen concentrated orange juice futures eased 0.35 cent to close at $1.6415 per lb, moving from $1.636 to $1.6535.

The spot September contract rose 0.75 cent to end at $1.7515.

The level of investor interest dropped to its lowest level since April 7 with open interest dropping to 25,635 lots as of Aug. 18, ICE Futures US data reported.

Volume was around 1,500 lots at 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT), just over 50 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"We're seeing people doing switches and that's about it. We should get more of the same next week," a dealer said.

The market derived some support from the fact that it is still the middle of the hurricane season for Florida, the leading citrus grower in the country.

Most storms during hurricane season which could hit Florida form in late July through the middle of October.

The market has digested the estimate of influential private forecaster Elizabeth Steger who was said to have pegged Florida's 2011/12 citrus crop at 142 million (90-lb) boxes, at the lower end of trade expectations from 140 million to 150 million boxes.

Louis Dreyfus pegged the crop at 146 million boxes. In 2010/11, the Florida crop stood at 140 million boxes. The US government will release its own estimate in the US Agriculture Department's monthly supply report in October.

Volume traded Thursday in the juice market hit 1,600 lots, from the prior tally of 2,978 lots, ICE Futures US data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2011