ICE cotton futures on Thursday rose about 1 percent on expectations of strong weekly sales data from the US Department of Agriculture that is due on Friday. The December cotton contract on ICE futures US settled up 0.71 cent, or 0.98 percent, at 73.5 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 72.48 and 73.7 cents a lb. The July cotton contract on ICE Futures US was up 0.84 percent, at 77.63 cents per lb.
"If we don't see cancellations causing a net negative sales number tomorrow, I don't see the justification for the July market to move any lower," said Ron Lee, general manager at McCleskey Cotton in Bronwood, Georgia. "With a still sizable open interest in July and an imbalanced on-call position, I really see the chance for July to trade back above 80 cents per lb and possibly very quickly. As for December, a potential move in July could take the December back toward 75 cents per lb," Lee said.
Total futures market volume rose by 9,266 to 31,085 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 76 to 241,569 contracts in the previous session. "I think the market was very close to doing a technical bearish breakout to the downside and it sort of held itself," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton broker Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. "There's not a lot of selling in the market right now so the market is just running back up to find the level of willing sellers."
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