Cotton futures finished with small gains Monday on modest buying by small speculators, and the market should stay in a band while waiting for leads in the days ahead, brokers said. New York Board of Trade open-outcry May cotton closed up 0.20 cent at 53.80 cents per lb after trading 53.60 to 54.07 cents.
One contract aside, the rest rose 0.30 to 0.65 cent. IntercontinentalExchange's NYBOT electronic market for cotton showed the May contract up 0.28 cent at 53.88 cents at 2:37 pm EST (1937 GMT), dealing from 53.67 to a contract peak of 54.03 cents. Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia, said cotton contracts may move in a range over the next few days and that the recent advance in prices may make the market vulnerable to a setback.
Cotton supplies remain ample and most analysts are looking closely whether the robust sales reported in the weekly export sales report of the US Agriculture Department will be duplicated this week. Fundamentally, players are now focusing on the start of the spring planting season around April and May. Another vital piece of data would be the annual planting intentions report for grains and cotton sowings from the US Agriculture Department coming out on March 30.
Futures opened higher in open-outcry dealings from the opening bell but trade sales in benchmark May kept the contract from staying above 54 cents, dealers said. "There was nothing spectacular in there. I think we hang around here until we get solid news that the Chinese are done with New Year and are now back at full bore," one said.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in May cotton at 54.35 and 54.90 cents, with support at 53.75 and 53.30 cents. Floor dealers said final estimated cotton volume in open-outcry stood at 12,600 lots versus the prior tally of 19,764 contracts. They said electronic trading volume on Friday amounted to 4,006 lots. Electronic trading ends at 3:15 pm. Open interest rose 165 lots to 199,540 lots as of February 23.
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