US cotton futures ended down 1 percent on Friday, off the session's 5-1/2 month lows, as the market continued to languish from a lack of interest not seen in many other commodities. "There seems to be no one interested in cotton because there are better bets to place in crude oil, gold and rice," said Keith Brown, a cotton markets analyst in Moultrie, Georgia.
The benchmark July cotton contract on ICE Futures US closed down 0.69 cent at 69.30 cents per lb, trading from 70.45 to 67.85 cents - a low dating back to January 14. The new-crop December cotton contract lost 0.70 cent to finish at 77.97 cents, dealing from 79.07 to 76.55 cents.
Traders said prices could decline further before the next cotton shipment sales data due from the US Department of Agriculture. USDA said on Thursday total US weekly cotton sales amounted to 197,800 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), down from 241,800 RBs previously.
The USDA has targeted a total shipment of 14.2 million (480-lb) cotton bales for the current year. Brokers said they need to average over 300,000 RBs to reach the USDA projection. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp put support for the July cotton contract at 67.50 cents.Open interest in the cotton market rose 3,597 lots to 268,828 lots as of May 22.
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