Cotton futures were up over one percent on Thursday, their biggest one-day rise in nearly four weeks, fuelled by buying from China. "Chinese speculators are buying industrial metals and that spilled over into cotton, so the prices went up," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi. "The sales were very neutral," Varner added, referring to the export sales data from the US Department of Agriculture.
US government data showed net upland sales totalled 168,800 running bales of cotton for the week ended November 3, up five percent from the previous week. "People are looking at the specifics of the exports ... there is more exporting to China than expected. People generally see that as the demand world-wide since China is one of the largest importers," said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York.
The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US, settled up 0.97 cent, or 1.41 percent, at 69.83 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 68.68 and 70.4 cents a lb. The dollar index was up 0.30 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.36 percent. Chicago Board of Trade January soybean futures were up 7-1/2 cents at $9.98-1/2 per bushel. CBOT December corn was up 1-1/4 cents at $3.42 per bushel and CBOT December wheat down 1/4 cent to $4.06-1/2.