NY juice ends at 7-month low, could slip further

09 Apr, 2012

NEW YORK: Orange juice futures closed at a 7-month low on Monday, falling for a third straight session due to near ideal growing weather in the major producing state of Florida and ample supplies, traders.

Key May frozen concentrated orange juice dropped 5.90 cents, or 3.7 percent, to end at $1.528 per lb, after moving to $1.5175 to $1.579.

Volume traded on Monday stood around 2,500 lots, slightly above the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"There's plenty of supply," said The Price Group analyst Jack Scoville. "There's not a whole lot of upside this week."

Traders said the market's outlook is weak and could soon test key support at $1.50, basis the key May contract.

Traders also awaited an update on the 2011/12 Florida citrus output from the US Agriculture Department supply/demand report on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT).

Open interest in the market, an indicator of investor exposure, stood at 19,886 lots as of April 5, the lowest since the middle of May 1999 or almost 13 years, ICE Futures US data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2012

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