Cotton falls as Trump dashes hopes of trade deal this year

ICE cotton futures fell over 1% to a more than one-week low on Tuesday as comments from US President Donald Trump diluted optimism around a potential breakthrough in the US-China trade dispute.

Cotton contracts for March fell 0.69 cent, or 1.06%, to 64.11 cents per lb by 01:44 p.m. ET, the level last seen on Nov. 22.

It traded within a range of 64.05 to 64.93 cents a lb.

"The market is trading on the negative news regarding the trade situation with President Trump indicating that he is not willing to make a trade deal just yet and that he is willing to extend this a little bit longer," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with INTL FCStone.

Trump, speaking to reporters in London, raised the possibility of the trade deal being delayed until after the US presidential elections in November 2020.

Trump's comments came as sources in Beijing and Washington familiar with the talks said the two countries have made progress, but are still wrangling over whether existing US tariffs will be removed and over specific levels of Chinese purchases of US agricultural products as part of a "phase one" trade deal.

China is the biggest consumer of cotton and the United States is the biggest exporter.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC that planned tariffs on Chinese imports will be imposed on Dec. 15 unless there is some real reason to postpone, such as substantive progress in talks.

The natural fiber has fallen over 12.5% so far this year on the backdrop of the protracted US-China trade war.

Monday's crop progress report from the US Department of Agriculture showed cotton crop was 83% harvested in the week to Dec. 1, above the five-year average of 81%.

Meanwhile, ICE cotton speculators trimmed their net short position by 8,192 contracts to 17,282 in the week to Nov. 26.

Total futures market volume fell by 5,712 to 26,444 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 2,856 to 196,990 contracts in the previous session.

Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Nov. 29 totaled 83,666 480-lb bales, up from 78,124 in the previous session.