ICE cotton futures jumped over 1.5 percent on Thursday to hit a near-nine month high, boosted by a supportive US export sales report. Cotton contracts for March settled up 1.2 cent, or 1.62 percent, at 75.33 cents per lb. The contract touched its highest level since March 20 at 75.56 cents a lb.
"Export sales were good. It helped the sentiment. We have the speculators buying, the trade wants to buy on dips but we don't have enough sellers. So the market goes up," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton. Earlier in the day, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported net upland sales of 259,700 running bales for 2017/2018 for the week ending December 7, up 39 percent from a week ago. Exports of 166,600 running bales were down 33 percent from the previous week, but up 24 percent from the prior 4-week average.
"People were expecting cancellations. There were a few but nothing big canceled. Sales are now at the highest level at this point of time since the 2011 season," Egli said. Meanwhile, total futures market volume rose by 8,855 to 32,914 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 3,079 to 257,139 contracts in the previous session.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of December 13 totaled 47,628 480-lb bales, unchanged from the previous session.
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