ICE cotton futures rose for the fourth straight session on Monday and touched the highest level since July 10, bolstered by last week's bullish US government forecast. "It's a different world if the USDA numbers are correct," said Jordan Lea, chairman and co-owner of Eastern Trading in South Carolina.
"Now you have to be more aggressive in procuring what you need." The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week slashed its projections for supplies in the 2015/16 crop year that began August 1. The ICE Futures US cotton contract for December delivery settled up by 0.57 cent on Monday, a 0.9 percent gain, to 66.52 cents per pound. It rallied as high as 66.89 cents.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of August 14 totalled 90,746 480-lb bales, down from 95,711 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 0.32 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.77 percent. Specs cut net long position in the latest week. The most-active soybean futures gained 0-1/4 cent to $9.16-3/4 per bushel while the front-month corn futures were down 0-3/4 cent to $3.63-1/2.