ICE cotton futures edged lower on Tuesday in subdued trading, weighed down by a firmer dollar. "The market is over-bought. We don't have anymore fund rolling going on. Also, not many people are coming into to buy the May contract," said Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis.
The May contract, which touched the highest since July 2014 on Monday, is likely to retrace to 74 or 75 cents in the near-term, Rose said.
"You are not seeing physical business, its being driven on speculations. If speculators cannot push the prices any higher they try to exit."
The dollar climbed on Tuesday to a three-week peak against a basket of major currencies as investors raised their outlook on a faster pace of US interest rate increases following comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
The May cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.26 cent, or 0.33 percent, at 77.95 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 77.52 and 78.37 cents a lb.
Total futures market volume fell by 16,558 to 51,134 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 974 to 283,376 contracts in the previous session.
The dollar index was up 0.26 percent.
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