Cotton futures fall on US-China trade tensions

ICE cotton futures slipped on Friday in low-volume trade a day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, as uncertainty over a trade deal between the United States and China weighed on investor sentiment.

Cotton contract for March settled down 0.45 cent, or 0.68%, at 65.36 cents per lb.

It traded within a range of 65.11 and 65.78 cents a lb.

"Cotton prices are down in part because of no China deal coming anytime soon," said Jack Scoville, vice president at Chicago-based Price Futures Group.

US President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday that threatens sanctions for human rights violations on China.

China on Thursday threatened to retaliate against the new US legislation, which also backs pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, with potential measures including barring drafters of the legislation from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, the editor of China's state-backed Global Times tabloid said in a tweet.

The natural fibre has fallen over 11% so far this year on the backdrop of the protracted trade war between the United States and China.

The US Department of Agriculture in its weekly export-sales report showed net sales of 281,500 running bales (RB) for the 2019/20 marketing year, up 24% from the previous week and up 33% from the prior four-week average, for the period ended Nov. 21.

"We've got a lot of cotton sold to China on the books that haven't been shipped and we are still messing around with the trade war deal with China," said John Bondurant, a trader in Memphis, Tennessee.

Total futures market volume fell by 2,612 to 14,204 lots. Data showed total open interest gained by one to 199,012 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Nov. 29 totalled 83,666 480-lb bales, up from 78,124 in the previous session.