Cotton futures slipped on Tuesday from the more than one-week high seen in the previous session, on overall weakness in commodities markets fuelled by bearish news out of China as traders awaited the release of key US government data. "Nobody is willing to buy (cotton) right here," said Ron Lee, general manager at McCleskey Cotton in Bronwood, Georgia. Traders took stock of weak economic data from top consumer China, with exports tumbling the most in over six years, which weighed on commodities and equities markets.
The cotton markets also awaited the release of the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report from the United States Department of Agriculture on Wednesday. The May contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.52 cent, or 0.9 percent, the biggest intra-day percentage loss in over a week, at 56.86 cents per lb, after falling as low as 56.53 cents a lb.
The dollar index was up 0.13 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 1.33 percent. Total futures market volume fell by 5,454 to 22,917 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,262 to 208,603 contracts in the previous session.