Cotton futures reversed early declines to end mostly firmer Thursday, buoyed by speculative buying, but trade selling and uncertainty about the path of Hurricane Rita kept trading a bit muted, market sources said.
The New York Board of Trade's benchmark December cotton contract climbed 0.08 cent to 51.97 cents a lb, after dealing from 50.50 cents to 52.20 cents.
March futures rose 0.20 cents to 53.36 cents a lb, and more distant deliveries ended from down 0.03 cent to up 0.20 cent.
"It was spec buying today, trade selling," said Sharon Johnson, a cotton expert with First Capitol Group in Roswell, Georgia.
She said speculators were buying cotton mainly because the CRB Index of commodities has been strong, not based on fundamentals, which showed ample supplies of cotton.
Cotton growers in some Texas counties rushed to harvest their crop before Hurricane Rita strikes, with heavy rains and wind the key worries, farmers and market sources said.
Rita weakened to Category 4 intensity Thursday afternoon but remained a dangerous storm. Its path shifted a bit to the north-east and it would likely make landfall as a strong Category 3 intensity near Houston sometime early Saturday.
"We're running behind normal schedule," said John Malazzo, a farmer in Burleson County, mid-way between Houston and Dallas. "Right now, we are 60 to 70 percent harvested, which is not enough."
In nearby Brazos County, Steve Perrone of Mid Valley Gin Co said the Brazos bottom harvest was about 40 percent complete. Elsewhere in Texas, most cotton has been harvested in Blacklands and Upper Coast regions, said John Robinson, a Texas A&M University cotton economist.
Johnson added that she expected there were some 30,000 bales of cotton located in Galveston and Houston that were part of the stock deliverable against the NYBOT contract.
"I don't really see it as a big issue by any means," she said. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp put resistance in December futures at levels up to 52.80 cents and support at 51.85 and 51.00 cents.
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