Cotton futures eased on Thursday in choppy trade under harvest pressure, even though US government data showed a bump in export sales booked last week. The most-active March cotton contract on ICE Futures US sank as low as 58.74 cents a lb before closing down 0.24 cent, or 0.4 percent, at 58.86 cents. Expectations of growing inventories as farmers ramp up harvesting in key producers pressured prices to a five-year low of 58.57 cents a lb last week.
The second-month turned higher after a weekly US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report showed exporters sold 172,000 bales of upland cotton in the week ended November 13, more than 41 percent from the prior four-week average. "We're finding some modest scale-down mill buying. That and the export data were enough to steady us up," said Sharon Johnson, a cotton specialist with KCG Futures in Georgia.
Even so, prices resumed their slide on selling due to harvest pressure and liquidation ahead of the notice period for delivery against the December contract. The contract goes into notice at the end of this week. Traders expect a small delivery against the contract due to expire on December 8. The front-month closed down 0.57 cent, nearly 1 percent, at 58.54 cents a lb after falling over 2 percent during the day's sell-off.
Farmers in the United States and India, two of the world's three largest producers, are harvesting large crops. Increased production this year and slowing demand in top consumer China are expected to leave the world with excess inventories of over 107 million 480-lb bales by the end of July 2015. India's cotton trade has stalled due to waning demand from China and a 30-percent price drop this year. The country's state-run procurement agency has ramped up purchases from farmers as a result. The Cotton Corporation of India plans to buy around 7.5-10 million 170-kg bales this year, soaring from 440,000 bales in 2013/14. Exchanged inventories inched up to 24,049 bales on Wednesday, up from 23,745 bales previously, the most recent ICE data showed. That was up from one-year lows earlier this month.
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