US cotton futures finished mixed Friday as the market appeared to be stabilising after a savage sell-off in the commodity sector over the last few sessions, analysts said. "Cotton's trying to hold its own," said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana. "It's stabilising, but the interest on a Friday is at a very low level."
The key July cotton contract on ICE Futures US fell 1.30 cents to settle at $1.4556 per lb, trading from $1.438 to $1.491. It was the lowest close for cotton in almost four months, Thomson Reuters data showed. The new-crop December cotton futures rose 0.21 cent to close at $1.2229 cents per lb.
Volume traded stood at almost 12,000 lots, around 50 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed. Traders said investors were unwinding positions in the benchmark July cotton contract since old crop supplies are practically gone and turning their attention to December, against which producers will price the upcoming 2011/12 cotton crop.
They added that consumer demand has also started showing up in the December contract, lending support to the market. The market will be looking for leads next week on buying intentions by mills from China, the world's leading consumer of cotton, analysts said. Open interest in the cotton market dropped to 148,291 lots as of May 5, the lowest level since October 2009, from 149,172 lots in the previous session, data from ICE Futures US showed.
Volume traded in the cotton market was at 10,679 lots as of May 5, versus the previous tally of 10,679 lots, exchange data reported. Steamed beans may sour record coffee price gap World stocks recovered Friday on news US employers added more jobs than expected in April, while the euro sank after German magazine Der Spiegel reported Greece has considered exiting the eurozone.