NYCE cotton futures finished lower Friday in a quiet session that featured some light profit-taking ahead of Monday's USDA supply/demand report, traders said.
"There was not a lot going on today. It was basically scale-up selling and scale-down buying by the trade," said a floor dealer.
"It was just general liquidation ahead of Monday's report," he added.
March settled down 0.96 cent to 74.17 cents a lb, after trading from 74.15 to 75.49 cents. Maylost 0.79 cent to 75.46 cents. The rest finished 0.30 to 0.75 cent lower.
"We are definitely technically bullish, in sentiment we're bullish, and the fundamentals are bullish.
Those are the three key ingredients you need for a bull market to continue," said Alan Feild of iamhedged.com in Memphis, Tennessee.
Looking ahead, industry analysts said that they only expect minor, if any, changes in Monday's USDA monthly production report.
"There are likely to be few changes in the US figures and the focus of traders will be on the international estimates, especially China's numbers," said brokerage Flanagan Trading Corp.
As for China, USDA said the Chinese crop would reach 22 million bales and that consumption would be at 30.2 million.
Flanagan went on to say that if the USDA left the World stocks/Use ratio unchanged or lower, the report would be perceived as bullish.
"I guarantee if we are called lower Monday because of this report, you want to buy this market," said one broker.
The report is due out Monday at 8:30 am EST (1330 GMT).
Technical analysts saw resistance in the March contract at 75.90 cents, while support was seen at 74.10 and 73.80 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume reached only 6,500 lots, compared with Thursday's official count of 10,414 lots. Open interest gained 1,540 lots to 90,382 lots as of January 8.