Cotton futures hit nine-month lows on Tuesday, falling for an eighth straight session in the longest rout since May, as harvest pressures weighed down prices and triggered further selling. The most-active December cotton contract on ICE Futures US edged down 0.31 cent, or nearly 0.4 percent, to settle at 78.34 cents a lb.
Prices dipped as low as 78.29 cents, the weakest level for the spot contract since January. The contract was on track for a monthly loss of 9 percent, its biggest since September 2012. The bearish trend has triggered more selling in options-related and technical dealings, said Sharon Johnson, a cotton specialist with KCG Futures in Atlanta.
"We are in sort of a vicious cycle and can't seem to break out of it," she said. Traders saw 78-cent level as the next trigger for technical selling that could bring the December contract to 75.5 cents, the weakest since November.
Even with the day's losses, fibre slightly outperformed broader commodities markets, with the Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB index down 0.44 percent on the day. Both the dollar and US stocks rose as newly released economic data supported expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain its stimulus program well into 2014. Harvest pressures continued to build. A US government weekly crop progress report, released on Monday, showed the harvest in the world's top exporter was ramping up after delays earlier in the season.
The data also showed 44 percent of the crop was in good or excellent in condition. A Commitment of Traders (COT) report, delayed because of the government shutdown, revealed that speculators trimmed their net long position as prices fell off a 6-week high during the week of October 8th. Traders awaited the COT report for October 11th, due later this week. As of Monday, 20,656 new bales of cotton were certified, raising exchange inventories to 134,991 stocks, ICE data showed. Those inventories include some of last season's crop, dealers said.
A sudden injection of supplies pushed the market into a contango three weeks ago for the first time in months. The December contract traded at a discount of 1.81 cents lb below the March contract, widening from 1.8 cents a lb previously. Storms headed towards areas of Texas, the top producing state in the United States, and kept fibre from further losses. "There's rain coming through. That could slow the harvest," said Jack Scoville, vice president for Price Futures Group in Chicago.
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