Cotton edges down on mixed USDA supply-demand report

Cotton futures drifted down to close at their lowest levels in about three weeks on Tuesday on a US supply-demand report that prompted a slightly negative reaction and a stronger dollar. In its monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimate report, the US Department of Agriculture raised its outlook for domestic inventories of cotton to be carried into the 2016/17 crop year but forecast world stocks to decline next year.
"The domestic data was negative for the old crop and the global data was a little positive for the new crop," said Keith Brown, proprietor and cotton trader at Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. The front-month July cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.43 cent, or 0.70 percent, at 60.9 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 60.6, the lowest since April 18, and 61.97 cents a lb. The dollar index was up 0.16 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 1.83 percent.