Sugar Falls Sharply During Widespread Commodities Slide

Sugar futures fell sharply Wednesday as part of a broad sell off across the commodity complex.

Raw sugar for March was down 3%, to end at 14.45 cents a pound, on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, the lowest close since Nov. 3.

"All major commodities were on the defensive today with only natural gas closing around unchanged and gold rallying 0.1%," ED&F Man Capital Markets said in a note.

Once the Goldman Sachs Commodity index broke a key support level, that seemed to spur on some selling in commodities on a general basis, the firm noted, with the moves led by a sharp drop in gasoline and crude.

Sugar is among the agricultural commodities most closely tied to energy markets at sugarcane producers are able to convert cane to either sugar or ethanol.

In other markets, March cocoa fell 1.4%, to end at $1,906 a ton.

Nicholas Gentile at NickJen Capital Management & Consulting said some large trade houses that have been bullish on cocoa are getting out of those positions after overestimating demand for the main ingredient in chocolate.

Arabica coffee for March lost 1%, to end at $1.261 a pound, and frozen concentrated orange juice for January was down 2.7%, to close at $1.577 a pound.

Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 06, 2017 19:02 ET (00:02 GMT)