Cotton futures rose on Friday on worries that unfavourable weather in Texas would hurt crops and strong US government export data in a session shortened by post-holiday trading hours and technical issues. Prices were bolstered by forecasts of freezing rains for key areas of Texas, the top-producing state, traders said. Export sales hit a marketing year high of 257,600 running bales in the week to November 19, up 38 percent from the previous week, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showed on Friday.
"The exports were great," said Jack Scoville, a vice president with Price Futures Group in Chicago. The weekly report was delayed due to the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Trading of the No 2 cotton contract was shut due to technical issues during early trade on Friday. The market reopened at 11 am EST.
The March cotton contracts on ICE Futures US settled up 0.65 cent, or 1.03 percent, at 63.93 cents per lb. It hit a one-month high of 64.16 cents a lb. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of November 25 totalled 63,958 480-lb bales, up from 59,771 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 0.23 percent. The Thomson Reuters Core Commodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 1.21 percent.
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