ICE Cotton futures prices fell more than 1% on Thursday, to touch their lowest level in a week, hurt by weak export sales data and as investors liquidated their positions ahead of the first notice day for the July contract due next week. The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures US, the third-month December contract, settled down 1.2 cent, or 1.79% - the biggest daily percentage decline since late May, to 65.96 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 65.61 and 67.48 cents a lb. It touched its lowest level since June 13.
"The July cotton goes into delivery on Monday. We are seeing a lot of selling pressure on the July contract which to some degree has fallen over to the December," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. Monday is the first-notice day for the July contract. Meanwhile, Thursday's weekly export sales data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show net sales reductions of 119,300 running bales (RB), a marketing-year low, for 2018/2019 down noticeably from the previous week and prior 4-week average.
The export sales data showed reductions of 84,600 RB from Turkey and 69,900 RB from China. Cotton traders are now focused on USDA's all cotton planted acres report and the meeting between leaders of the United States and China ahead of the G20 meeting, both due next week. Total futures market volume rose by 4,996 to 32,924 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,612 to 178,654 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of June 19 totalled 97,713 480-lb bales, up from 95,036 in the previous session.
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