Cotton futures rallied on Thursday, rebounding from a three-week low hit the prior session, as traders covered short positions ahead of the holiday after a US government report showed a jump in export sales. "We didn't have a bad export report," said Louis Rose, independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis, Tennessee, noting that while sales were still below the pace required to meet total export expectations, the jump showed that cotton below 63 cents a lb was undervalued.
Sales of upland cotton last week totaled 118,200 bales for the 2015/16 season, up 19 percent from the previous week but down 36 percent from the prior four-week average.
March cotton on ICE Futures US settled up 0.89 cent, or 1.42 percent, at 63.66 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 62.73 and 63.94 cents a lb. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of December 23 totaled 64,723 480-lb bales, unchanged from 64,723 in the previous session. The US dollar index was down 0.46 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 0.50 percent.