Sugar Rises on Weaker Dollar, Brazil Crush Report

Sugar futures rose Tuesday, buoyed by a weaker dollar and a supportive report from Brazil's cane crush industry.

Raw sugar futures for March delivery added 1.2% to settle at 14.17 cents a pound.

Sabine Lautenschlaeger, an ECB executive board member, on Monday said the central bank should start scaling back its aggressive bond-buying program next year. The hawkish comments drove up the euro against the dollar, which has also lost ground against a wide range of currencies. Traders are expecting an update on the future of the asset-purchase program when policy makers meet later in October. The ICE U.S. Dollar index slipped 0.5%, falling for a third straight session.

Unica, the Brazilian cane industry association, on Tuesday said center-south mills crushed 40.3 million metric tons of cane during the second fortnight in September, a decrease of 5.2% from the same period a year earlier. During the period, they produced 2.9 million tons of sugar and made 2 billion liters of ethanol.

Tuesday's Unica report lent some support to the sugar market, which lately has been weighed down by a lack of fresh bullish news, triggering an increase of bearish bets by speculators.

The cane crush was slightly below market expectations for the period, and mills also reduced the amount of cane allocated to sugar production to 46.54% of the total, down from 47.96% in the first half of September.

Green Pool had expected a cane crush of 41 million metric tons and a production mix of 47% sugar versus 53% for ethanol. Brazil is the world's biggest sugar producer and exporter, and the center-south grows about 90% of the country's cane.

On the weather front, Green Pool reported that in early October the central-south Brazil received very welcome rain, which could have a good impact on the next crop.

Cocoa futures for December delivery gained 1.8% to settle at $2,045 a ton, arabica coffee for December edged up 0.04% to close at $1.3100 a pound, frozen concentrated orange juice for November was up 2.4% to end at $1.6125 a pound, and December cotton unchanged at 68.95 cents a pound.

Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 10, 2017 15:58 ET (19:58 GMT)