ICE cotton futures slipped marginally on Friday to hit a more than one-week low in thin volume trading as the natural fibre market registered it biggest weekly decline in two months.
The March cotton contract hit a session low of 72 cents per lb., the lowest since Jan. 4. The contract ended the week down 2.3 percent, the lowest since the week ended Nov. 4.
"The fall in certificated cotton stocks and the WASDE (World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates) report has put a lid on the market for now ... All are waiting for the market to drop," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.
The break of the 72.75 cents resistance level on Thursday has opened the door for some further downside in sessions ahead, with a lot of trade buying waiting in the 71-72 cents fixation zone, Egli said.
ICE cotton slid over 1 percent on Thursday after the US Department of Agriculture raised its outlook for production and inventories by the end of the 2016-17 crop year.
Cotton contracts for March settled down 0.07 cent, or 0.10 percent, at 72.27 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 72.0, the lowest since Jan. 4, and 72.75 cents a lb.
Total futures market volume fell by 12,451 to 21,741 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 500 to 262,426 contracts in the previous session.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Jan. 12 totalled 109,313 480-lb bales, down from 109,665 in the previous session.
Speculators raised their net long position for cotton by 11,078 contracts to 110,898 in the week to Jan. 10, CFTC data showed.
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