Cotton dips 2pc after Trump declares additional Chinese tariffs

ICE cotton futures fell nearly 2% on Thursday to touch its lowest in nearly two weeks after US President Donald Trump said he will impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports.

* The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures US, the second-month December contract, fell 1.13 cents, or 1.77%, to 62.71 cents per lb at 2:18 p.m. EDT (1818 GMT).

* The contract touched its lowest since July 19 at 62.50 cents a lb.

* Trump said he would impose an additional 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1, as talks aimed to ease tensions between the world's two largest economies continue.

* "Cotton sold off about a 100 points just almost immediately after Trump announced the tariffs," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with INTL FCStone.

* The natural fiber has slid by about 15% so far this year owing to a drawn-out trade war between cotton's top consumer, China, and one of the top producers, the United States.

* In a string of tweets, Trump also faulted China for not following through on promises to buy more American agricultural products and personally criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to do more to stem sales of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

* US and Chinese negotiators ended two days of talks in Shanghai on Wednesday with little sign of progress, although both countries described the negotiations as constructive. Another round of meetings between the negotiators has been scheduled for September.

* Meanwhile, the dollar index touched a two-year high after interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. A stronger greenback makes commodities priced in dollars, such as cotton, more expensive for holders of other currencies.

* "Primary trend is down (for cotton) and until specs decide to cover, this will not change. So far, I see no reason for specs to get out of positions," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.

* The weekly export sales report from the US Department of Agriculture showed net sales of 10,200 running bales (RB) for 2018/19 were down 94% from the previous week, while exports of 291,200 RB were down 9%.

* Total futures market volume rose by 3,838 to 18,135 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 474 to 196,387 contracts in the previous session.

* Certificated cotton stocks <CERT-COT-STX> deliverable as of August 1 totaled 30,437 480-lb bales, down from 30,522 in the previous session.