ICE cotton futures slid to a more than six-month low on Monday on fears of the economic fallout from the coronavirus while the US Federal Reserve's second emergency rate cut failed to calm unnerved investors.
Cotton contract for May fell 1.98 cents, or 3.3%, to 58.51 cents per lb by 1:03 p.m. EDT (1703 GMT).
The contract fell to 58.10 cents per lb earlier in the session, a level last seen in September 2019.
"You are dealing with so much unknown and so much irrational behavior from market to market that it's very difficult to call a bottom," said Jon Marcus, president of Lakefront Futures and Options brokerage in Chicago.
Mass paranoia and liquidation are weighing on the cotton market, Marcus said, adding, "nobody knows how long this virus will last, how long this is going to affect production or who's buying anything."
A sharp cut in interest rates by the Fed ahead of schedule and its pledge of massive asset purchases added to the alarm about the fast-spreading health crisis that has paralyzed supply chains and squeezed company revenue.
The contract has fallen about 15% so far this year on escalating fears over the economic impact and demand for the natural fiber due to the virus outbreak.
The United States Department of Agriculture last week lowered its 2019/20 projection for US cotton production by 300,000 bales to 19.8 million bales and also estimated lower demand globally, with a 1 million-bale cut in China's expected consumption.
Cotton speculators increased net short positions by 8,606 contracts to 12,096 in the week to March 10, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.
Total futures market volume fell by 21,149 to 37,112 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 613 to 213,981 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of March 13 totaled 40,345 480-lb bales, up from 40,152 in the previous session.
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