Cotton sinks to lowest in more than a year in commodities rout

Cotton futures fell to the lowest in over a year on Thursday, weighed down by the broadly bearish sentiment in commodities markets and data showing a drop in US export sales. "Cotton markets have been following oil and the S&P," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.46 cent, or 0.8 percent, at 58.42 cents per lb after hitting 57.85 cents a lb, a contract low and the weakest price since January 2015.
US export sales of upland cotton totalled 227,700 running bales in the week ended February 4, down 10 percent from the previous week, according to US government data released Thursday. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Wednesday totalled 29,128 480-lb bales, up from 27,897 in the previous session. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.89 percent.