Sugar:

A volatile week for raw sugar futures, which posted fresh four-week highs before being washed down in the final session of the week. Price action was highlighted by a 3.42 per cent sell off in the last 30 minutes on Tuesday before ratcheting higher again in the following two days. Despite a retracement of 50+ point losses, the push to extend recent topside momentum was not sustained. Last week, Petrobras increased gasoline prices by 4 per cent, supporting sugar. Ethanol parity was also higher. Likely led by some early rolling, the front Oct17/ Mar18 spread strengthened to –61 points as we near the Oct17 contract expiry.

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AUD:

A choppy old week for the AUD, failing at two attempts to surpass USD 0.80. A North Korean missile launch over Japan stalled the first attempt at USD 0.80, where risk assets and currencies were sold off heavily. Better-than-expected US GDP and employment data saw the USD gain ground, seeing the AUD to USD 0.7871-week lows. This was short lived as the AUD bounced back on Friday night following a soft US Payrolls print. A busy week on the local calendar, with the RBA meeting on Tuesday to be followed by Q2 GDP, retail sales and trade balances on Thursday. Central bank speakers across the remainder of the week should hold some of the market’s focus.