NEW YORK: US cotton futures closed lower Friday on investor profit-taking as players opted to take cash home after fiber contracts surged in the previous session due to a bullish government plantings report, analysts said.
The key May cotton contract on ICE Futures US fell 4.68 cents, or 2.3 percent, to finish at $1.9555 per lb, dealing from $1.9506 to $2.0100. On the week, cotton is down 4.4 percent.
The new-crop December cotton contract slipped 0.32 cent to end at $1.3218.
Total volume traded in the cotton market was around 23,800 lots, about 3 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed. Volume traded on Thursday reached a six-week high of 41,765 lots, ICE Futures US data showed.
The level of investor interest hit a 6-1/2 week high as open interest in cotton futures stood at 189,812 lots as of March 31, according to ICE Futures US figures.
Independent cotton analyst Mike Stevens of Louisiana said profit-taking knocked old-crop cotton contracts like May and July, and the resultant drag on the market prevented the new-crop December contract from posting any gains.
"May and July sagged and held December back," he said.
Analysts said the US Agriculture Department's potential plantings forecast of US 2011 cotton sowings, which came in at a much lower-than-expected 12.566 million acres, cannot stop the two-year rally in cotton futures.
They said the main concern about US cotton acreage is the dry spell in the top growing area of Texas, which is expected to plant about half of the US cotton crop.
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