By Julie Wernau 
 

Orange juice futures spiked higher Tuesday in a week of volatile trade with the path of Hurricane Matthew in the Atlantic still uncertain.

Frozen concentrated orange juice for November delivery rose 2.2% to $2.0125 a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.

"It's a weather driven market, and you still have another month for hurricane season and that's going to drive prices," said Joe Ricupero, vice president at R.J. O'Brien Futures in New York.

The sleepy orange juice market has been among the top performing commodities this year, with futures up 39% year-to-date.

"The sky is the limit," Stefan Vegh, a trader at Saxo Bank's Cyprus office, said in a recent note about the orange juice market, adding that an all-time high of $2.25 cents a pound is a near-term possibility for orange juice.

Open interest in the markets has been increasing, Mr. Vegh said, with hedge funds re-entering the market and placing speculative long positions. The reason: lower orange production in major growing regions, including Florida and Brazil.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in the 2015-16 season, 32% of oranges fell from trees before the harvest versus 7% on average five years ago due to a disease called citrus greening that is causing fruit to drop before it is ripe.

In Brazil, rain is raising the threat of fungal disease at a time when stocks of juice are at historic lows, said Saxo Bank.

In other markets, raw sugar for March was up 2% at 23.12 cents a pound, cocoa for December rose 0.8% to $2,815 a ton, arabica coffee futures were up 0.2% at $1.478 a pound and December cotton edged up 0.9% at 69.16 cents a pound.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 04, 2016 11:37 ET (15:37 GMT)