Cotton futures settled mostly firmer Thursday on speculative buying as the market gave a muted reaction to a government report on potential US cotton plantings in 2005, brokers said. The New York Board of Trade's key May contract was the only loser for the day by slipping 0.35 cent to close at 53.03 cents a lb, trading from 52.65 to 54.10 cents. July gained 0.01 to 54.48 cents and the rest rose 0.30 to 0.60 cent.
The US Department of Agriculture said in its annual planting intentions report that American farmers will sow 13.815 million acres to cotton in 2005, below trade belief of nearly 14 million. Last year, US farmers planted 13.76 million acres to cotton.
Sharon Johnson, cotton expert for Frank Schneider and Co Inc in Atlanta, Georgia, said the report apparently had been partly priced into the market.
While there was an initial flurry of speculative fund buying at the start, that soon petered out and sales by small speculators deflated the initial advance staged by nearby months in the cotton pit, she added.
"We're struggling," Johnson said, adding this was in sharp contrast to strong increases in soybeans, corn and wheat futures in Chicago.
A report by brokers Flanagan Trading Corp said that while the acreage figure came in at the low end of expectations the "final cotton acreage may be higher, at least in part because peanut acreage is not likely to be as large as this report shows for the (US) Southeast."
Separately, USDA said in its weekly export sales data that total US cotton sales hit 168,500 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), versus trade belief of 150,000 to 250,000 RBs. US cotton shipments of previously booked orders hit 395,300 RBs, against trade expectations of 320,000 to 425,000 RBs.
Flanagan Trading put support in the May contract at 52.50 and 51.70 cents, with resistance at 53.10 and 54.20 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated volume stood at 14,000 lots versus Wednesday's official tally of 11,913 lots. Open interest rose 854 contracts to 121,099 lots as of March 30.