NEW YORK: Orange juice futures settled higher on Tuesday on investor short-covering as the market rebounded from a fall to a 2-month low and end a 5-day losing streak, analysts said. The key January FCOJ contract climbed 1.10 cents to finish at $1.6735 per lb, dealing from $1.6465 to $1.6885.
On Monday, the contract closed at $1.6625 per lb in the lowest settlement for the spot juice contract since mid-October, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Total volume traded Tuesday was above 3,000 lots, more than double its 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.
"We were overdone on the downside so it came back a bit. We're still under pressure unless a freeze hits Florida," a trader said.
Winter premium buying in case a hard freeze struck Florida, the top citrus growing area in the country, during the northern hemisphere winter.
Florida's citrus groves were hit by a hard freeze in 2010 and 2011, causing significant damage to fruit and trees in the area.
Forecaster Telvent DTN said Florida should be dry with a few light showers and temperatures above normal through the rest of the week. Fundamentally, the market digested news the US Agriculture Department's monthly supply-demand report last week raised the 2011-12 Florida citrus crop to 150 million (90-lb) boxes, from 147 million it forecast in its October report.
Open interest came to 28,021 lots as of Monday, from 28,749 lots in the previous session, ICE Futures US data said.
Volume traded Friday was at 5,183 lots, more than double the prior tally of 2,424 lots, exchange figures showed.
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