US cotton futures ended higher on Wednesday on some expectations of slightly lower production and better demand ahead of a closely watched US Department of Agriculture crop report. The benchmark March cotton contract settled 0.21 cent higher at 74.42 cents a lb, after trading from 73.30 to 74.50 cents. Mike Stevens, an analyst for Louisiana-based broker SFS Futures, said that the March contract was stuck in a range between 73 and 75 cents a lb.
"The anticipation of a slight cut in crop in the USDA report and an increase in demand should support the market," Stevens said. The USDA monthly supply/demand report will be released on Thursday at 8:30 am EST (1330 GMT). Cotton analysts expect the USDA's crop estimate to be slightly below or unchanged from its November forecast of about 12.5 million bales. Harvest of the cotton crop this year has been delayed by heavy rains in large swaths of the US cotton belt in September.
Volume in the March contract reached 10,038 lots by 2:29 pm EST (1929 GMT), versus the 5,360 lots seen late on Friday. Total cotton volume on Monday hit 10,910 lots, up from the prior tally of 8,071 lots, ICE Futures US said.
Comments
Comments are closed.