ICE cotton fell on Friday, after hitting an over two-week high earlier in the session, and snapped six straight sessions of gains as concerns of crop damage due to Hurricane Harvey faded in top US producing regions. "The track of Harvey was changed from going into the Delta to more or less southern and south western Texas and dissipating (thereafter)," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi, adding "now, it appears losses won't be as severe."
Cotton contracts for December settled down 1.68 cent, or 2.41 percent, at 68.15 cents per lb, snapping six straight sessions of gains. It traded within a range of 67.51 and 70 cents a lb, its highest since August 10. "The upper coast region of the state will be at the greatest risk for yield and quality loss ... Still, at this time losses would appear to be minimal - at least in terms of overall US production," said Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group.
Businesses closed and lines of cars streamed out of coastal Texas as officials called for residents to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Harvey, expected to arrive at about midnight as the most powerful storm to hit the US mainland in more than a decade. The NHC's latest tracking model shows the storm sitting southwest of Houston for more than a day, giving the nation's fourth most populous city a double dose of rain and wind.
"We're seeing a lot of farmers selling ... and the (speculators) are trying to support the market," Varner noted. "I just think the market is going lower over time." On ICE Futures US, speculators cut net long position in cotton by 6,516 contracts to 21,172 in week to August 22, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.
Total futures market volume rose by 11,341 to 28,120 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 973 to 226,412 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of August 24 totalled 10,888 480-lb bales, down from 11,279 in the previous session.
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