ICE cotton futures edged higher on Friday, helped by robust weekly US export sales data amid a weaker dollar, and ended 2016 by marking their best year since 2013. "I think it (export sales data) caused some short covering. .. Shipments picked up, which probably increased supportive sentiment," said Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis, Tennessee.
Export data from the US Department of Agriculture showed net upland sales of 343,200 running bales of cotton for last week, up 24 percent from the week before. Benchmark cotton prices have surged nearly 12 percent in 2016, their best performance since 2013. "Cotton has performed admirably this year given that we had a very large US crop," Rose said.
March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.15 cent, or 0.21 percent, at 70.65 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 70.43 and 71.96 cents a lb, the highest since December 14.
Total futures market volume rose by 3,711 to 21,962 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 493 to 241,775 contracts in the previous session. The dollar index was down 0.38 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.20 percent. Speculators raised their net long position for cotton by 236 lots to 94,247 lots for the week ended December 27, CFTC data showed.
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