Cotton futures stemmed a four-day losing streak on Thursday, rising off the lowest level in 6-1/2 years as investors covered bearish bets. "(Cotton is) oversold on many different levels," helping to prompt a short-covering rally, said Lou Barbera of ICAP Cotton. Traders took stock of acreage forecasts from the USDA, which projected all-cotton plantings at 9.4 million acres in the country in 2016, compared to 8.6 million acres in 2015. The forecast was broadly in line with expectations for an increase in production as prices of competing crops languish.
The gains came despite a lacklustre US export sales. Sales of upland cotton totalled 110,600 running bales in the week ended February 18, according to US government data released on Thursday. Cotton contracts for May settled up 0.35 cent, or 0.61 percent, at 57.76 cents per lb, after hitting 57.27 cents. The dollar index was down 0.17 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 0.71 percent.
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