Cotton closes at two-week low as speculator selloff continues

Benchmark cotton futures closed at their lowest level in two weeks on Wednesday as speculators continued to dial back a huge bullish stance and as demand concerns, particularly in top consumer China, lingered. "Speculators spent all the bullets they had with their buying last week," said Sharon Johnson, a senior cotton specialist at Wedbush Securities in Atlanta, Johnson made note of worries over demand and improving growing conditions in the United States, the world's top exporter. The December cotton contracts on ICE Futures US settled down 0.66 cent, a 1 percent loss, at 65.30 cents per pound, their lowest close since June 24.
Traders awaited a US government supply-demand forecast due on Friday. The Thomson Reuters Core Commodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.13 percent. Specs raised a net long position to 41,279 from 14,270 in the latest week. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of July 7 totalled 161,746 480-lb bales, down from 163,976 in the previous session.