Cotton futures settled up slightly on Monday, helped by a weaker dollar as traders remained cautious ahead of the US government's much awaited planting intentions report on Thursday. "It has been a very lethargic and choppy day. I don't foresee the market accomplishing something between now and Thursday," said Keith Brown, proprietor and cotton trader at Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
The front-month May contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.08 cent, or 0.14 percent, at 57.80 cents per lb, after trading in the range of 57.20 and 57.99 cents a lb. The dollar index was down 0.20 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 0.22 percent. Speculators trimmed their net short position in cotton by 2,280 contracts to 38,208 in week to March 22, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on March 25.