Cotton futures fell for the first time in five sessions on Monday, retreating from Friday's more than three-month highs as a 1.2 percent gain the prior week prompted farmers to sell physical cotton to merchants, who responded by selling futures. "They're buying some cotton and selling the board," said Jobe Moss, a broker with MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas. "You keep pushing up, you're going to find more cotton."
March cotton on ICE Futures US settled down 0.14 cent, or 0.22 percent, at 64.57 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 64.07 and 64.78 cents a lb. Total futures market volume fell by 3,970 to 22,311 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 3,977 to 190,353 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of December 4 totalled 65,302 480-lb bales, up from 65,182 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 0.30 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 2.55 percent. Speculators boosted their net long position to 39,666 from 21,416 in the latest week.