Investors are looking for some developments in the US-China trade situation and that is holding back the market at this point, said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with INTL FCStone. "It's been a fairly quiet day overall, not as much activity as we've seen in the last couple of days. The export sales report was not unexpected in terms of the figures."
The US Department of Agriculture in its weekly export-sales report showed net sales of 206,500 Running Bales (RB) for the 2019/20 marketing year rose 9% from the previous week, while exports of 151,600 RB were up 2% for the same period. The United States is one of the world's biggest producers of cotton, while China is the largest consumer. Total futures market volume fell by 10,067 to 21,088 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,392 to 241,614 contracts in the previous session.