ICE cotton futures rose on Wednesday, boosted by a weaker US dollar after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) lowered its expectations for world inventory for the 2014/15 crop year, which ends in July, in its monthly supply demand report. "They were slightly friendly because they lowered the rest of world ending stocks," Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton Ltd, said of the USDA numbers.
The most-active December contract on ICE Futures US settled up by 0.42 cent on Tuesday at 65.79 cents per pound. It traded within a range of 65.39 and 65.93 cents a pound. The USDA lowered its expectations for 2015/16 beginning and ending stocks in India, one of the world's top producers, but unexpectedly left its 2014/15 forecast for exports from top-exporter United States at 10.7 million bales.
The December contract's premium to the July contract rose to 0.90 cent per lb from 0.82 the prior session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of June 8 totalled 157,188 480-lb bales, up from 153,931 in the previous session. The Relative Strength Index in the most-active contract rose to 56.211.