Cotton futures ended mostly easier Monday due to trade and speculative sales although most analysts feel cotton may grind higher in the days ahead due to steady demand for the fibre, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's July cotton contract shed 0.15 cent to finish at 51.57 cents a lb, moving from 51.39 to 52.08 cents. New-crop December fell 0.10 to 55.75 cents. One contract aside, the rest lost 0.05 to 0.50 cent.
Mike Stevens of brokers SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana, said cotton has been largely steady for most of the session.
He said automatic buy orders would kick in if the July contract can race past 52.15 cents and more orders could pour in if the contract closes any day of this week over 52.65 cents.
Fundamentally, cotton prices are holding their own despite attempts by speculators to sell them off because of robust buying from trade and consumer accounts.
There is also some concern in the trade about the ongoing dry conditions in Texas, the top cotton growing state in the country, and other parts of the US Southwest where cotton is sown, according to industry participants.
An early attempt by some speculators to press the market lower ran into trade buying, but the situation reversed itself once July pushed past 52 cents during the session, dealers said.
Some trade accounts sold cotton at the top of the range and the market wound up staying within a few points of unchanged, they said.
Stevens said the strong advance posted by the Reuters/Jefferies Commodity index has provided background support for the steadiness in cotton prices.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees support in the July cotton contract at 50.80 and 50.10 cents, with resistance at 51.60 and 52.15 cents.
Floor dealers said final trading volume was estimated at 11,000 lots, from the prior count of 14,352 lots. Open interest rose 1,530 lots to 147,886 contracts as of April 28.
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