Cotton futures ended with small gains on Friday on trade buying as the market finished its third week within a trading band with no sign of a breakkout next week, analysts said The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures US rose 0.38 cent to end at $1.0194 per lb, trading from $1.0108 to $1.0365. The market has traded in a band from 98 cents to $1.04 for three weeks.
For the week, the market is barely changed from its close last week at $1.0198. Total volume on Friday was more than 9,900 lots, about a quarter under the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed. Mike Stevens, an independent analyst in Mandeville, Louisiana, said cotton worked its way to the session high on suspected mill buying, but the momentum from that move quickly faded.
"It just fizzled," he said. Cotton futures may have derived some encouragement from stronger stock prices and a weaker dollar as investor moods brightened that Europe is on track to resolve its festering debt crisis. US retail sales also grew 1.1 percent in September, the fastest pace in 7 months. Analysts said the market seems to show solid support anytime it falls toward $1 but investors have shown little inclination to push the December contract past $1.04.
Open interest in cotton, usually taken as an indicator of investor exposure, stood at 153,893 lots as of October 13, from 153,707 lots on October 12, the exchange said. Total volume traded Thursday in the cotton market reached 14,489 lots, against the prior tally of 18,352 lots, ICE futures US data showed.
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