Cotton futures fall for fourth day

Cotton futures fell for fourth straight session on Thursday as mixed signals on the US-China trade talks weighed on investor sentiment that overshadowed a positive weekly export sales report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Cotton contracts for March fell 0.46 cent, or 0.72% to 63.82 cents per lb by 01:50 p.m. EST (1850 GMT).

It touched a more than one-month low of 63.70 cents earlier in the session.

"There are few different factors pressuring prices, part of it had to do with lack of any progress on US-China trade front," said Bailey Thomen, consultant at INTL FCStone Inc. China has invited top US trade negotiators for a new round of face-to-face talks in Beijing amid continued efforts to strike at least a limited deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.

This comes after a report said a "phase one" trade deal between Washington and Beijing may not be completed this year. Conflicting headlines on US-China trade relations sent financial markets lower. However, "we had a good export sales report ... and we have seen quite a bit of interest in the lower ranges, especially on the consumers side like mill fixations," Thomen said.

The USDA in its weekly export-sales report showed net sales of 227,600 running bales (RB) for the 2019/20 marketing year, down 34% from the previous week, but up 20% from the prior 4-week average, for the period ended Nov. 14.

The first notice day for the December contact is due on Nov. 22 "The main dynamic in the market at the moment is the December/March spread," Ron Lee, general manager at McCleskey Cotton in Bronwood, Georgia, said in a note. Total futures market volume fell by 21,112 to 32,689 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 13,842 to 206,230 contracts in the previous session.