New York cotton settles quietly softer

Cotton futures finished easier Wednesday on sales by small speculators, but the overall tone of business was subdued and players were looking for leads to provide direction for the market, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's key December cotton contract slipped 0.47 cent to end at 54.76 cents a lb, moving from 54.25 to 55 cents. It was an inside day since the range was within Tuesday's 54.10 to 55.34 cents band. March fell 0.29 cent to 56.90 cents. Back months declined from 0.20 to 0.95 cent.
"All I heard were locals pushing on it again," said Jobe Moss, an analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas. He said activity in the ring was noticeably dull.
"When trade selling in futures and options took prices lower right out of the gate, locals sold out and flipped to the short side. Then fresh spec selling found very little if any support," said Mike Stevens of SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Fundamentally, market players are keeping an eye on the harvest of the US cotton crop and trying to gauge the demand for cotton from China, the world's top consumer of the fiber.
Futures lost ground from the opening bell due to speculative sales, but the market received light support from the trade and this prompted some of the same speculative accounts to cover, dealers said.
Looking toward the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report, cotton brokers expect US cotton sales to range from 100,000 to 300,000 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), against sales of 258,300 RBs the previous week.
The brokers said US cotton shipments of previously booked orders will likely range from 100,000 to 150,000 RBs, compared to shipments in the last USDA report of 135,700 RBs.
Brokerage Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the December cotton contract at 55.35 and 56 cents, with support at 54.50 and 53.80 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume was 8,800 lots, against the prior tally of 11,858 lots. Open interest in the cotton market rose 1,394 lots to 122,819 lots as of October 25.