The New York Board of Trade's key March raw sugar contract settled unchanged at 11.78 cents a lb, dealing from 11.61 to 11.80 cents. May shed 0.02 to 11.69 cents.
The rest ranged from 0.02 cent down to up 0.01 cent. "The locals are just hunting for stops on the way up and on the way down. It'll probably stay this way for a while," a long-time floor dealer said. Traders said the benchmark March contract has been sloshing between 11.60 and 11.86 cents all of this week, gyrating from one end to the other daily.
Fundamentally, robust fund buying has combined with the diversion of cane in growers like Brazil to produce more ethanol to spark the rally in the sweetener to its highest level in over seven years.
The market tumbled at the start from speculative sales, but support again emerged near 11.60 cents and enabled the market to recover, dealers said.
"The locals were leaning on the short side, but when it couldn't go lower, they covered," one said. Technicians said they feel resistance for the March contract would be at 11.86, then contract peak of 11.91 cents.
Support would be at 11.60 and 11.50 cents. Volume traded before the close amounted to 22,191 lots, versus the previous tally of 22,602 contracts.
Call volume hit 8,702 contracts and puts stood at 2,268 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market rose 1,305 lots to 473,967 lots as of October 26.
Ethanol futures were untreated, with no quotes in the spot November ethanol contract. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. US Sugar Corp, the biggest cane sugar producer in the country, said losses from Hurricane Wilma were substantial although it will take time to get an accurate tally of the damage.
The January contract rose 0.09 cent to 22.29 cents a lb. and March fell 0.02 to 21.83 cents. The rest ranged from 0.02 cent down to 0.07 cent firmer.
Volume done before the end of trade hit 1,423 lots, from the previous tally of 1,400 lots.