Cotton futures settled with small losses Monday on speculative sales, but trade buying off the lows pared market losses as players turned their focus to growing conditions in the US cotton belt, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's May cotton contract fell 0.33 cent to close at 53.24 cents per lb, trading from 52.77 to 53.80 cents. July shed 0.28 to 54.78 cents. The rest ranged from 0.13 cent down to 0.32 cent firmer.
The IntercontinentalExchange's NYBOT electronic market for cotton showed the May contract down 0.37 cent to 53.20 cents at 2:34 pm EDT (1834 GMT), moving from 52.77 to 53.81 cents. Jobe Moss, an analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas, said early pressure came from margin-related and speculative sales but trade buying trimmed losses.
He said cotton was still pinned in a wide band running from 52.50 to 54.50 cents, basis May, but that dealings were dull on the whole. "You can try to paint the pig, but when you come down to it, its still a pig," said Moss.
The market has already digested the potential plantings report from the US Agriculture Department released last week. USDA projected 2007 US cotton plantings reaching 12.147 million acres, below trade expectations it will reach an average of 12.217 million and sharply down from 2006 cotton sowings of 15.276 million acres.
Analysts said there may also be a lot of switching between cotton, corn and soybeans until the USDA releases its planted acreage data on June 30.
The market will now turn its attention to the weekly USDA crop progress reports that get going later on Monday. "It will be time to look at the weather and see how the crop is developing," one said. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in May cotton at 53.30 and 53.75 cents, with support at 52.80 and 52.10 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume stood at 28,000 lots, from the prior open-outcry volume of 44,832 contracts. NYBOT said electronic trading volume Friday was at 17,961 lots. Open interest in the cotton market rose 2,442 lots to 232,652 lots as of March 30.
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