Cotton settled down and near a three-week low Wednesday on commercial and speculative sales, and prices should steadily decline some more on follow-through pressure, brokers said. The New York Board of Trade's key December cotton contract lost 1.08 cents to end at 54.29 cents a lb, moving between 53.57 and 55 cents.
It was the lowest close for cotton on a spot basis since trading near 52 cents in early October. March shed 1.01 cents to 56.14 cents. Distant contracts declined from 0.80 cent to 1.00 cent.
"The market's getting technically whacked," said Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. Fundamentally, the market must contend with the continuing harvest of another large US cotton crop in the coming weeks.
Commercial sales deflated cotton and small speculators joined in the selling when they saw fiber contracts head south, dealers said.
Modest trade buying enabled cotton to bounce back a bit, but it was not entirely convincing, they said.
"It bounced a little but you get the feeling that it will not be able to come back the whole way," a trader explained.
Analysts said monster Hurricane Wilma, churning toward Florida from the Caribbean, would not be a big worry for the cotton market. That's because most cotton areas in Florida are in the northern part of the state and away from the southern regions being targeted by the storm, analysts said.
But this could change if the storm heads for the key cotton growing state of Georgia.
Looking toward the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report, cotton brokers estimate US cotton sales to range from 50,000 to 100,000 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), against sales last week of 42,000 RBs, a marketing year low.
US cotton shipments of previously booked orders are seen hitting from 150,000 to 200,000 RBs, versus last week's 168,100 RBs.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the December cotton contract at 54.50 and 55.35 cents, with support at 53.80 and 53.05 cents.
Floor dealers said estimated final volume amounted to 15,000 lots versus Tuesday's tally of 14,411 contracts. Open interest rose 149 lots to 122,932 contracts as of October 18.