New York cotton futures mixed

Cotton futures settled mixed Wednesday, with the key December contract weighed by trade sales as operators waited for news on damage to cotton areas from Hurricane Rita, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's benchmark December cotton contract settled down 0.18 cent at 53.91 cents a lb after dealing from 53.20 to 54.45 cents. The contract had hit a two-month high on Tuesday by concluding at 54.09 cents.
Second position March rose 0.24 cent to 55.32 cents. The rest ranged from 0.10 cent easier to 0.70 cent firmer.
"What looks like aggressive trade selling came down on the market, posting new lows," said Mike Stevens of SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana.
He added though that speculative fund buying was waiting for cotton at 53.30 cents, basis December, and this trimmed some of the losses in cotton.
Stevens said the market's looks poised to march higher.
"The fundamentals were given a bullish boost from still undetermined losses of both quality and quantity by Rita as well as losses in China" from recent heavy rains, he added.
Analysts said the key December cotton contract will likely consolidate above 53.30 cents for the meantime while waiting for news to provide it direction.
Looking toward the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report, cotton brokers expect US cotton sales to range from 150,000 to 200,000 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), versus sales last week of 130,500 RBs.
The brokers said US cotton shipments of previously booked orders should reach between 150,000 to 250,000 RBs, against shipments in last week's report of 181,100 RBs.
The market is also waiting for results of a third day of talks between Washington and Beijing to place curbs on billions of dollars in clothing imports from China.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in December cotton at 54.10 and 54.50 cents, with support at 53.25 and 52.30 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume came to 22,000 lots, down from Tuesday's tally of 27,032 lots. Open interest rose 3,521 lots to 107,674 lots as of September 27.