Cotton futures ended firmer on Thursday as speculative short-covering lifted prices off of their lows in moderate in pre-holiday dealings, brokers said. The cotton futures and options market will be closed on Friday for Christmas. Business resumes on Monday, December 27. The key March cotton contract on the New York Board of Trade gained 0.18 cent at 42.90 cents a lb, after trading in a tight 42.51-43 cent range.
May settled 0.34 cent better at 43.49 cents and back months closed 0.30 to 0.40 cent higher.
"Pretty quiet today....with a 49 point range. The market was just marking time again. Export sales were decent, but I don't think we traded off those numbers this morning," said one dealer.
The US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report showed US cotton sales at 155,300 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), versus 299,300 RBs last week. That was below analyst expectations of anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 RBs.
US cotton shipments of previously booked orders reached 215,600 RBs, compared with 184,100 RBs in last week's report and trade belief it would range from 200,000 to 225,000 RBs.
Mike Stevens of SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana, thought the report pointed to good demand in the market.
"The total net new sales were 201,900 RBs, combining upland and pima...plus we had new crop sales of 20,900 RBs, so you had 230,000 bales of cotton sold last week."
He also noted that the shipment numbers (upland and pima combined) were 251,500 RBs, with the pima figures of 35,900 RBs being a record high for the year.
"Shipments like that are very encouraging," Stevens said.
Technicians pegged resistance in the March cotton contract was at 44 cents and 44.75 cents, while support was now seen at around 42 cents and 41.75 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume stood at 4,500 lots, versus Wednesday's 13,057 lots. Open interest in the cotton market grew 728 lots to 83,999 lots as of December 22.
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