NEW YORK: Cotton futures settled mixed Wednesday in a quietly traded session as players awaited release of a government sales report to see if top consumer China again bought large amounts of cotton, analysts said.
The spot December cotton contract on ICE Futures US increased 0.84 cent to finish at $1.035 per lb, moving from $1.0207 to $1.0436. It was an inside day since the range was within Tuesday's $1.0011 to $1.0469 band.
The now most-active March cotton futures fell 0.14 cent to settle at $1.0048 a lb, ranging from 98.45 cents to $1.0088.
Total volume traded Wednesday hit almost 19,500 lots, less than 3 percent below the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.
"We're holding near the top end of the 10-cents trading range," said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana.
The December contract has been moving in a wide band from the October top of $1.0505 and down to the November low of 95.96 cents.
Analysts said players are now unwinding positions before going into first notice day for deliveries next week.
Trade is now looking toward release of the US Agriculture Department's weekly export sales report on Thursday to see if China will be a major buyer of cotton.
In last week's report, USDA said China bought 996,100 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each) of cotton.
Stevens said there may be "some residual business" by the Chinese, but it probably will not be as large as in last week's USDA report.
Open interest in cotton, usually taken as an indicator of investor exposure in cotton, stood at 143,259 lots as of Nov 15, from the prior tally of 146,914 lots, exchange data showed.
Total volume traded Tuesday in the cotton market reached 57,321 lots, the highest level traded since Feb 18, ICE futures US data said.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.