NEW YORK: Orange juice futures fell more than 4 percent in heavy volume on Wednesday, touching a fresh 18-month low, as receding frost and fungicide fears bolstered bearish investor sentiment.
The plunge made orange juice the biggest loser within the 19-commodity Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index as sellers continued to pressure prices amid a lack of bullish news.
"We had the fungicide development, then there was no freeze, the crop size is OK, and demand is horrible, so there's no reason to be long this market," said Country Hedging Inc analyst Sterling Smith.
Key May frozen concentrated orange juice sank 5.25 cents, or 3.6 percent, to finish at $1.4170 per lb, after dealing between $1.3835 and $1.4725.
It was the lowest close for the spot juice contract since Sept. 3, 2010, according to Thomson Reuters data.
So far this week, the contract has lost more than 10 percent of its value, but traders expect some price stability in the days ahead.
"We breached the $1.40 level. We've taken it from $1.80 to $1.40 in basically three weeks ... we've got to be getting pretty close to being played out on the downside," one trader said.
Volume traded on Wednesday reached above 5,700 lots in late New York trade, more than double the 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.
On the supply side, the US Agriculture Department cut its estimate of Florida output to 145 million (90-lb) boxes, down from its 147 million forecast last month.
Open interest in the market, an indicator of investor exposure, stood at 19,860 lots as of April 10, ICE Futures US data showed.