Cotton futures settled marginally firmer Wednesday on speculative fund buying, but the market is seen trading in a band in front of the New Year holiday weekend, brokers said.
The cotton market will be closing 75 minutes early on Friday at 1:00 pm EST (1800 GMT). The market is shut Monday for New Year and trading resumes on Tuesday.
The New York Board of Trade's key March cotton contract rose 0.27 cent to end at 54.07 cents a lb, moving from 53.85 to 54.25 cents. The range nearly matched Tuesday's 53.60 to 54.25 cents band. May added 0.26 to 54.66 cents. The rest increased from 0.30 to 0.47 cent.
Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia, said speculative fund buying again pushed the market to 54.25 cents, basis March, but was again beaten back by producer sales.
"We're getting some equilibrium in here," he said, adding though that any major moves in cotton may well have to wait until after the New Year holiday festivities.
The benchmark March cotton contract has been largely confined between 52.50 and 54.50 cents the past few sessions, analysts said.
Futures popped higher at the start as speculators again sought to touch off automatic buy orders above 54.25 cents in the March contract, dealers said.
"We tried the high but stalled because there is just too much trade selling at that level," one said.
Fundamentally, the market will wait for Friday's release of the weekly US Department of Agriculture export sales report to get some guidance on the pace of fibre sales.
In other news, the weekly spec/hedge report from the New York Board of Trade showed the funds net long 8.3 percent against 3.2 percent net long last week.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the March contract at 54.65 and 55.10 cents, with support at 54.05 and 53.20 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume amounted to 7,200 lots, from the prior tally of 7,220 lots. Open interest rose 917 lots to 104,251 contracts as of December 27.
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