ICE cotton futures fell on Friday, touching a one-month low, under pressure from disappointing US government weekly export data, outside market pressure and a rising US dollar. Sales of upland cotton were down and shipments slumped 57 percent from the previous week, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showed on Friday. "There's cotton around that hasn't found a home," said a US broker, noting lacklustre demand.
Falling equities and grains markets also weighed. The buoyant US dollar pressured greenback-traded commodities, as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies. The second-month eked out a slight weekly gain despite the day's loss. The March cotton contracts on ICE Futures US settled down 0.17 cent, or 0.3 percent, at 61.99 cents per lb after falling to 61.56 cents, the lowest for the second-month since October 13.
The cash to second-month spread fell 0.03 cent to 0.37 cents per lb. Total futures market volume fell by 2,287 to 40,935 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,258 to 191,869 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Thursday totalled 49,851 480-lb bales, up from 47,081 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 0.39 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.89 percent.
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