Cotton futures settled on Friday near a 4-year low on all-around sales as poor demand and the increasing bite of a global recession may further deflate fibre prices in the weeks ahead, brokers said. The key December cotton contract fell 0.80 cent or 1.7 percent to close at 44.29 cents per lb, dealing from 45.74 to a new lifetime low of 43.64 cents.
On the spot weekly charts, it was the lowest finish for cotton since trading around 43 cents in February 2005. March fell 0.65 cent at 48.53 cents. Volume traded in the December contract stood at 14,268 lots at 2:44 pm (1844 GMT). "Cotton didn't have a chance today," said Mike Stevens, an analyst for brokers SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana.
He said with outside markets trending weak and retail demand poor, cotton futures are left defenceless in its downward spiral. "The textile business is in the pits," said Stevens, adding there is no incentive for mills to buy at the lows given the prospect of even lower cotton prices. A report by First Capitol Group cotton expert Sharon Johnson said demand is not the only factor, but investment fund liquidation as well.
"As with other markets, there is little that can be done until 'enough is finally enough' and the insanity of the liquidation is satiated," she said. "What I do know is cotton had always moved to extremes in circumstances such as this and this is one of the worse or the best I have seen depending on one's perspective.
When it turns and it will, the odds are very high it will be far more vicious than the mid-month 3-day rally of 9 cents," Johnson concluded. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp put support in the December contract at 43.45 cents, with resistance at 45.35 and 46.65 cents. Volume on Thursday came to 23,610 lots, exchange data showed. Open interest fell 922 lots to 174,594 contracts as of October 30.
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