Sugar Market Ticks Higher

Sugar markets continued to move higher Monday following a month of decreasing volume that left the market in a tight trading range.

Raw sugar for March ended up 0.8% at 14.73 cents a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, the highest close since Aug. 2 for the most actively traded contract.

Sucden Financial said the markets have been supported by a continued reduction in sugar produced in Brazil due to a price advantage of ethanol over sugar, both of which can be produced from cane.

"Anhydrous and hydrous price is still lucrative," Archer Consulting said in a note. "Oil is going up and the real is devaluing (on Friday it hit 3.3000). This will drive gas price up and improve the arbitrage of ethanol with sugar."

At the same time, recent rain in Brazil, the world's largest producer of sweetener, has limited production this month, with more rain in the forecast. Technical traders are eyeing 15 cents for a break higher.

WeatherBELL Analytics said in a note that far northeastern Brazil will see an increase in showers over the next week to 10 days, along with wetter weather in western Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana.

In other markets, cocoa for December was up 0.1% at $2,118 a ton, arabica coffee for December lost 0.6% at $1.259 a pound, frozen concentrated orange juice for January rose 0.5% at $1.5465 a pound and December cotton was up 0.7% to end at 68.64 cents a pound.

Write to julie.wernau@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2017 16:19 ET (20:19 GMT)