Cotton futures settled easier Tuesday on trade sales and speculative profit-taking from players who had recently run the market up to its highest level since early July, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's key December cotton contract shed 0.63 cent to settle at 55.37 cents a lb, dealing from 54.52 to 55.75 cents. March eased 0.42 cent to 57.15 cents. One contract aside, the rest of the board increased from 0.30 to 0.40 cent.
Mike Stevens of brokers SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana, said trade and speculative accounts sold the market but the buying between 54 and 55 cents "is probably more than sufficient to keep the market from getting in trouble."
Trade buying at the lower levels in cotton enabled futures to pare gains substantially, analysts said.
"The specs are steadily trying to push cotton down, but the trade is there to support it," one said.
Fundamentally, the market is monitoring the ongoing US cotton harvest and the pace of demand in places like China, the world's top consumer of cotton.
Hurricane Wilma, the 21st storm of an unusually active Atlantic hurricane season, was considered a non-factor in the market.
The storm is expected to hit southern Florida by the weekend and the only concern in the trade would be if it hooked to the north and barrelled into the key growing state of Georgia and then the Carolinas.
Cotton is being harvested in those states and the bolls are open on plants. Heavy rain from a hurricane would inflict damage on cotton quality, cutting the return on those plants for farmers.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp said they see resistance in the December cotton contract at 56 and 56.75 cents, with support at 55.35 and 54.50 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume was 15,000 lots, against the prior tally of 9,521 lots. Open interest in the cotton market fell 875 lots to 121,813 lots as of October 17.
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