07/04/10 – White sugar fell in London as technical signals gave little indication that prices are poised to rebound from this year´s 36 percent drop.
The sweetener posted a seventh straight weekly decline last week after more than doubling last year. Prices surged in 2009 as bad weather curbed output in India and Brazil, the world´s two biggest producers.
“Unless sugar rises above $500 a metric ton, it is difficult to see any upside,” Eugen Weinberg, an analyst with Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said by phone today. “People are not looking at sugar.”
White, or refined, sugar for May delivery dropped $6, or 1.2 percent, to $483 a ton on the Liffe exchange. The contract ended January at $743.80. Raw sugar for May delivery gained 1.1 percent to 16.07 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. at 12:44 p.m. in New York.
“Some raws physical traders are both surprised and concerned” at the lack of demand from end-buyers, David Sadler, head of the sugar desk at Sucden Financial Ltd. in the U.K. capital, wrote in a note today. “With the speed and severity of the recent decline, they are possibly now feeling that lower prices are looking more likely and therefore are tending just to hold back.” | 