Cotton futures jump on trade optimism, improved technicals

ICE cotton futures rose more than 1% on Friday, set for a fifth straight weekly gain on hopes for a positive outcome from the US-China trade talks and an improved technical picture for the natural fiber. The front-month December contract, rose 1.4% to 65.52 cents per lb by 11:56 am EDT (1556 GMT). The contract traded within a range of 64.58 to 65.70 cents a lb.

"After yesterday's sell off, people are waiting to buy (cotton)... People have noticed that we eclipsed the 100-day moving average and ever since, we've really traded above and stayed above there. The trade is looking at the technical aspect more than anything fundamental right now," said Jon Marcus, president of Lakefront Futures and Options brokerage in Chicago. On Thursday, cotton prices fell on weaker export-sales data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that showed net sales of 140,500 RB slipped 32% from the previous week, while exports were down 2%.

Meanwhile, on Friday, trade representatives from Beijing and Washington were expected to discuss further about China opting for additional US farm products in exchange for cancellation of some US tariffs on Chinese imports. The natural fiber has slid by about 9% so far this year due to a long trade tiff between cotton's top consumer China and one of the top producers, the United States.

"In the short term, the market is comfortable where it is at. The trend has shifted towards going up a bit but it's not out of the woods yet," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with INTL FCStone. "Support lies above the moving averages like the 10 and 20 day specifically, (cotton is) finding some solid support above that right now and that's a good indicator. The resistance seems to be from the recent highs of 65.85." Total futures market volume fell by 3,274 to 17,691 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 890 to 240,091 contracts in the previous session.