New York cotton ends lower

Cotton futures settled easier Tuesday in a session featuring switch business as the furious rally in other commodity markets was basically ignored in the pit, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's May cotton contract eased 0.10 cent to conclude at 52.50 cents a lb, trading from 52.40 to 52.80 cents. It was an inside day since the range was within Monday's 52.30 to 53.05 cents band.
July shed 0.51 to 53.90 cents. One contract aside, the rest fell 0.05 to 0.58 cent.
"It's just all spreads," said Frank Weathersby of brokers Affinity Trading in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. "We're getting down (in the May contract) to a level that is manageable."
With players moving their positions, open interest in the May contract slid 6,126 contracts to 27,735 lots as of April 17 while interest in July rose 3,440 lots to 79,749 contracts.
A report by Sharon Johnson, cotton expert for First Capitol Group in Atlanta, said that with deliveries being reported on Monday it seems that "based on recent activity, a strong taker may emerge for any deliveries against the May contract."
The market paid little heed to sizzling rallies which sparked a surge in oil, gold, metals and sugar prices.
"It didn't really spill over into our pit," one said.
Fundamentally, the market is paying close attention to growing conditions in the US cotton belt and in a country like China, the world's top producer and consumer of cotton.
Johnson said new crop cotton prices "are beginning to reflect the less-than-stellar weather patterns on planting progress and potential crop conditions."
She added: "The delicate balance between supply and demand as witnessed by this crop year's back and forth performance could be easily disrupted if one or more major producing countries fail to live up to projections."
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the May cotton contract at 52.75 and 53.30 cents, with support at 52.10 and 51.50 cents.
Floor dealers said final trading volume was estimated at 37,000 lots, from the prior count of 35,086 lots. Open interest rose 1,212 lots to 140,380 contracts as of April 17.