NYBOT cotton futures closed at a fresh four-week high Wednesday on speculative fund buying and fibre contracts are seen pushing up on follow-through purchases by commodity funds in the days ahead, dealers said.
Key December cotton climbed 1.05 cents to finish Wednesday at 48.37 cents a lb, ranging from 46.90 to 48.95 cents. It was the best close for cotton on a spot basis since trading around 49 cents in mid-July. On Tuesday, the contract soared the 3.00-cent limit to end at 47.32 cents.
March gained 0.68 cent to 49.38 cents. Except for one contract, the rest increased 0.10 cent to 1.05 cents.
"We just got more short-covering," said Keith Brown, president of commodity trading firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
He said that given the large short position of the funds, the cotton market could well be taking aim at the psychological target of 50 cents in the days ahead.
The New York Board of Trades weekly spec/hedge report showed funds with a net short position of 40.4 percent. Some analysts feel the speculative covering in the market may have enough momentum to climb by another 2-4 cents.
"Overall, we believe the market has made a significant bottom and will now pay attention to the demand side of the equation which is strong and growing," said the daily commentary by brokers Flanagan Trading Corp.
Looking toward the weekly US Department of Agricultures weekly export sales report, cotton brokers said they expect US net upland cotton sales to reach from 175,000 to 225,000 running bales (RBs, 500 lbs each) for the week ending August 12, versus 263,000 RBs in last weeks report.
Shipments are seen at 100,000 to 130,000 RBs, compared with 157,200 RBs the previous week. USDA is scheduled to release the export report at 8:30 am EDT (1230 GMT) on Thursday.
Analysts said cotton purchases slowed before USDA came out with its critical monthly supply and demand report on August 12, which outlined the first detailed estimate of crops in the United States and elsewhere.
"Sales are usually slow ahead of that August report by the USDA. People want to see if they can buy cotton cheaply so they hold off to see the figures first," a broker in the south-eastern United States said.
Flanagan Trading said resistance in the December contract was at 49.20 and 50 cents, with support at 48.30 and 47.90 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume amounted to 14,000 contracts versus Tuesday's tally of 13,174 lots. Open interest fell 1,919 lots to 77,719 lots as of August 17.
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