ICE cotton futures rose in light volume to their highest levels in more a week and a half on Friday, as a weaker dollar discouraged speculators from getting out of long positions amid an absence of commercial selling. "The longs are sitting tight at the moment," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton Ltd. "There's not enough new selling coming in. The trade is already short and the (speculators) don't want to liquidate yet."
Cotton contracts for July settled up 0.31 cent on Friday, a 0.5 percent gain, at 66.84 cents per pound. It traded within a range of 66.11 cents and 66.87 cents a pound, the highest level for the front-month since May 6. Total futures market volume fell by 5,906 to 14,574 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 752 to 192,920 contracts in the previous session.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of May 14 totaled 118,095 480-lb bales, up from 114,052 in the previous session. The dollar index was down 0.23 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.13 percent. The Relative Strength Index in the most-active contract rose to 56.857.