ICE cotton futures rose marginally to hit a more than one-week high on Friday, supported by bullish export sales data and a weaker dollar. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US hit a session high of 73.43 cents a lb, a peak since January 12. The contract rose about 1.1 percent for the week.
"We had some very good export sales ... It was better than expected," said Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis. Export data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed net upland sales of 346,500 running bales of cotton for last week, up 47 percent from the previous week.
"March prices gained when the (export sales) report was released, but overall they stayed in the same region as the early-morning trades," said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York.
"Funds did not seem surprised, and have now been quiet ever since the last USDA WASDE report," Crivorot added. Speculators lowered their huge cotton net long position to 103,910 lots, reducing it by 6,987 lots, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed.
The dollar edged lower in choppy trading on Friday as investors found few reasons to make big bets on the US currency following President Donald Trump's inauguration speech. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.35 cent, or 0.48 percent, at 73.04 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 72.72 and 73.43 cents. ICE cotton was up 1.1 percent for the week.
Total futures market volume fell by 1,574 to 20,774 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,292 to 259,328 contracts in the previous session. The dollar index was down 0.3 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 0.54 percent.
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