Sugar Pulls Back; India Moves to Preserve Domestic Supply (16 October 2026)
Sugar fell on Friday, surrendering Thursday’s recovery while retaining gains for the week.
| Contract | Friday settlement | Daily change | Weekly change | Friday range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York raw sugar, March 2027 | 20.85¢/lb | −0.28¢ / −1.33% | +0.60¢ / +2.96% | 20.47–21.01¢ |
| London white sugar, December 2026 | $554.90/t | −$6.20 / −1.10% | +$12.40 / +2.29% | $547.70–558.90 |
March raws gave back almost all Thursday’s 0.29-cent gain and finished at Monday’s settlement. December whites reversed Thursday’s entire $6.20 advance, returning to Wednesday’s settlement. Both markets made lower highs and lows than Thursday, but recovered substantially from Friday’s troughs.
| Market | Friday volume | Daily change | Latest confirmed OI: 15 October | OI daily change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw sugar | 148,195 | −1.90% | 1,202,100 | +9,862 / +0.83% |
| White sugar | 26,891 | −1.78% | 166,012 | +1,943 / +1.18% |
Raw turnover ended four consecutive daily increases; white volume declined for a second session. The open-interest figures relate to Thursday’s rally and show additional outstanding contracts. Friday’s OI was unavailable at the cutoff, so these figures cannot establish whether the subsequent decline involved liquidation.
Raw March–May backwardation narrowed to 0.79 cent/lb from 0.81, while March–July eased to 1.31 cents from 1.37. In whites, December’s discount to March remained $13.40/t. The matched March white-over-raw futures premium was effectively unchanged at $108.64/t.
The weekly comparison is more revealing: raw March–May widened by only 0.01 cent, London’s December–March discount increased by $0.90, and the matched March white premium barely changed. Higher outright prices therefore lacked comparable confirmation from nearby spreads.
