Cotton futures ended mostly firmer Wednesday on speculative buying with most of the trade waiting for release of a government sales report on Thursday, analysts said. The New York Board of Trade's December cotton contract rose 0.10 cent to end at 49.89 cents a lb, dealing from 49.36 to 50.45 cents. March added the same to 52.05 cents.
Except for one contract, the rest gained 0.05 to 0.10 cent. "We're just at the mercy of technical (considerations)," said Keith Brown, president of commodity trading firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
He said that fundamentally, market players are waiting for further news on the supply/demand equation to see if demand can absorb the large crops developing in both the US and China, the world's biggest producers of cotton.
Futures popped higher at the start on early merchant buying but most of the running the market was eventually taken over by small speculators content to play the short side of cotton, dealers said.
"The locals tried to press it lower but there is pretty good trade buying at the lows and it bounced," one said.
Analysts said the trade is waiting for the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales data to give direction to the market.
Brokers expect the USDA to peg US cotton sales to range from 100,000 to 200,000 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), against last week's total sales of 169,700 RBs.
The brokers feel US cotton shipments to reach between 300,000 and 400,000 RBs, versus last week's 340,700 RBs.
"People want to get the cotton out before the start of the next marketing year (August/July)," one said.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees support in the December contract at 49.10 and 48.60 cents, with resistance at 49.90 and 50.40 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated volume hit 10,000 lots, compared with the previous tally of 13,568 lots. Open interest in the market rose 475 lots to 92,001 lots as of July 19.
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