NYCE cotton futures ended at a fresh eight-month low on Tuesday on speculative and options-related selling, with more volatility seen in fibre contracts ahead of options expiration in the market on Friday, dealers said.
Key May cotton fell 1.39 cents to finish at 57.37 cents a lb, moving from 56.76 to 59 cents. It was the lowest close for cotton on a spot basis since trading below 57 cents in August 2003. July lost 1.28 to 59.41 cents.
The rest declined from 1.83 to 1.96 cents.
"It's weak and very volatile," said Frank Weathersby of brokerage Affinity Trading in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. He added fibre contracts will likely gyrate wildly until options expiration in the May contract at the end of this week.
Cotton edged higher at the start to its highs for the day on minor short-covering, but then the bottom fell out of the market when speculative fund accounts dumped futures, brokers said.
Funds were liquidating positions as investors sought to get out of positions ahead of first notice day in the market on April 26.
"You had the funds liquidating and the options guys also unloading on cotton," a broker said.
Open interest in May fell 2,738 lots to 35,882 lots as of April 12, while interest in July rose 2,585 to 33,577 lots.
Analysts said market players will turn their attention to the fundamental outlook after May goes off the board on May 6 and the new-crop cotton estimates becomes available from the US Department of Agriculture on May 12.
For now, the market will take a look at the weekly USDA export sales report due out later in the week to see if US cotton exporters can hit the target of 13.8 million (480-lb) bales in exports in the 2003/04 marketing year (August/July).
Chartists said support for the May cotton contract was at 57.35 and 56.50 cents. Resistance was seen at 58.50 and 59 cents.
Floor traders said estimated final volume hit 29,000 lots, up from the prior tally of 23,568 lots. Open interest in the cotton market rose 319 to 92,407 lots as of April 12.