NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures fell to a one-week low on Thursday as a strengthening US dollar and losses in the grains market overshadowed a robust federal export sales report.
Cotton contracts for May fell 0.76 cent, or 0.9%, to 85.75 cents per lb at 2:10 p.m. EDT (1810 GMT), having touched its lowest since March 11 at 85.35 cents.
It traded within a range of 85.35 and 87.38 cents a lb.
“The sales were very good, especially considering that there is not much cotton available in the US,” said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with StoneX Group.
However, “the cotton market is following some of the outside markets ... the dollar index is trading higher, it could be adding some pressure on the (cotton) market.”
The US Department of Agriculture’s weekly export sales report showed that net sales of 437,700 running bales (RB) for 2020/2021 were up noticeably from the previous week, while exports of 351,900 RB were unchanged.
In the wake of strong export sales data cotton prices jumped as much as 1% earlier in the day before paring all the gains.
- The dollar rose 0.3% against key rivals, making greenback-denominated cotton costlier for other currency holding buyers.
US corn and soybean futures fell on Thursday, while the S&P 500 eased from a record high and the Nasdaq fell.
Total futures market volume rose by 943 to 16,291 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 166 to 232,282 contracts in the previous session.
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