Cotton hits one-week high ahead of exports data

ICE cotton futures rose in thin volume trading to hit a one week high on Thursday, ahead of the US export sales data due tomorrow. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US touched a session high of 73.29 cents a lb, a peak since January 12. "The volume wasn't great... The underlying story is there are a lot of longs and shorts, but the shorts are running out of time (to fix their shorts)," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.
The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.43 cent, or 0.60 percent, its biggest one-day percentage gain since January 4, at 72.69 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 72.27 and 73.29 cents a lb. Total futures market volume rose by 2,390 to 22,128 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,136 to 260,620 contracts in the previous session.