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Cotton futures finished easier Monday on very modest investor sales as major players peeled away for the year-end holidays and fiber contracts could drift quietly the rest of the week, brokers said. The benchmark March cotton contract declined 0.32 cent to finish at 74.96 cents per lb, dealing between 74.89 and 75.79 cents.
It was an inside day since the contract was stuck between Friday's 74.50 to 75.97 band. Last Wednesday, the contract closed at 76.25 cents in the highest finish for cotton based on the spot daily charts since the end of February 2008. Volume traded in the March contract hit a very light 4,094 lots at 2:34 pm EST (1934 GMT).
"Everybody's left for Christmas," said Jobe Moss, an analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas. The cotton market will close early on Thursday, December 24, and be shut for Christmas, December 25, which falls on Friday. The cotton is again shut next Friday, January 1. Analysts said the back-to-back holidays at the end of this week and next prompted many players to take off.
With a major industry conference scheduled for the first week of January, many players may not be back in cotton futures until the middle of next month, the analysts said. Traders said sharp gyrations in fibre contracts are still likely and this could happen given how thin business will be. Moss believes cotton futures, basis March, will head higher if the level of 72.85 cents is not broken.
If that mark holds, the market could well head toward the 80-cent area, he said. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the March cotton contract at 75.50 and 77 cents, with support pegged at 74.05 and 72.85 cents. Total volume traded Friday hit 10,047 lots, against the previous 17,707 lots, according to data from ICE Futures US. Open interest stood at 188,026 lots as of December 18, from the prior count of 187,736 lots, the exchange said.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

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