Cotton futures fall for third straight session in muted trade

Cotton futures fell in muted trading on Tuesday as prices hovered near the prior session's 6-1/2 year low. On Monday, cotton futures pared losses after falling to the lowest since June 2009 due to worries over demand in China, which had sparked selling early in the session.
Prices were consolidating after the prior day's volatile trade, said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton, adding that the cotton market was oversold.
The May contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.39 cent, or 0.69 percent, at 56.11 cents per lb, after hitting a low of 56.05 cents.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Monday totalled 69,670 480-lb bales, up from 68,318 in the previous session.
Total futures market volume fell by 22,580 to 35,840 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 7,278 to 202,886 contracts in the previous session.