Cotton futures rose on Thursday, hitting a six-week high, buoyed by a strong US export sales report and a weaker dollar and amid continued concerns about a shortage of high-grade cotton, as a late harvest and weather damage have harmed crop quality.
"There's concern out in the country, particularly West Texas and Georgia, with respect to the quality grades coming in," said Jim Lambert, director of sales at FCStone Merchant Services in Nashville, Tennessee. "The question is, how much of these low-grades are going to be tenderable?" March cotton on ICE Futures US settled up 0.45 cent, or 0.71 percent, at 63.95 cents per lb, after rising as high as 64.30 cents a lb, the highest level since October 22.
The United States exported 287,100 480-lb bales of cotton last week, the highest weekly total in the 2015/16 marketing year, which began in August. Total futures market volume rose by 3,815 to 22,859 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,603 to 183,382 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of December 2 totalled 65,468 480-lb bales, up from 65,409 in the previous session. The dollar index was down 2.11 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 1.36 percent. The Relative Strength Index in the most-active contract rose to 58.513.