Cotton futures remained nearly flat for the second straight session on Tuesday, ahead of the first notice day for the December contract and amid a steady dollar. The trade is buying the December contract and selling the March contract before the first notice day on Wednesday, said Jobe Moss, a broker with MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas.
"Once you get this day over with, we are going to find out what cotton's really worth. We'll probably see the March contract having a hard time holding these levels."
The US Department of Agriculture's weekly crop progress report released on Monday after market close showed that 67 percent of cotton crops were harvested in the United States by the week ended November 20, up from 61 percent in the previous week.
"Overall, things have stabilised for a few days now on scarce fundamental data and as the (US) election turbulence seems to have subsided," said according to Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled lower for the third straight session, down 0.05 cent, or 0.07 percent, at 72.24 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 71.33 cents and 72.5 cents a lb.
Total futures market volume fell by 3,424 to 29,383 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 675 to 251,513 contracts in the previous session.
The dollar index was down 0.02 percent.