By Julie Wernau 
 

Sugar prices ended higher Thursday, continuing a week of volatile trade as the market awaits fresh fundamental news.

Raw sugar for October delivery rose 1.7% to 20.57 cents a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, unwinding from sharp losses Wednesday when raw sugar futures lost 2.5%.

"There's a lack of follow-through selling," said James Liddiard, senior vice president at Agrilion Commodity Advisers in New York. "There's doesn't seem to be a concern about an immediate supply shortage. If you want sugar, there's sugar available. But there's a bigger concern about what happens next."

Traders are looking ahead to the possibility that sugar production in key growing regions around the world could slump in the months ahead.

In July, frost hit some key producing states in Brazil, the world's largest producer of the sweetener, and dry weather that has helped with the cane crush could hurt sugar content later in the season, said Citi Research.

Analysts' estimates of the Brazilian harvest have differed wildly. In the past two weeks one analyst predicted 34.1 million tons of sugar production, and another 36.5 million.

"No one disputes that the first half of the harvest has gone very well," Marex Spectron said in a note. "...The problem is the rest of the harvest."

In other markets, cocoa for December was up 0.4% at $3,028 a ton, arabica coffee for December jumped 0.9% to settle at $1.4445 a pound, December cotton was up 0.4% to close at 68.04 cents a pound and frozen concentrated orange juice for November lost 1.3% to close at $1.8525 a pound.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2016 16:54 ET (20:54 GMT)