Cotton futures finished slightly higher Thursday on speculative buying as the trade engaged in last-minute positioning before the release of tomorrow's government crop report, brokers said.
New York Board of Trade's key March cotton contract rose 0.38 cent to end at 52.75 cents a lb, ranging from 52.30 to 53.25 cents. May added 0.15 to 53.62 cents. Back months gained 0.20 or 0.25 cent.
"It's getting ready for the report," said Keith Brown, president of commodity trading firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. He was referring to the US Department of Agriculture's monthly supply/demand report due out at 8:30 am EST (1330 GMT) on Friday.
Analysts said the market will focus less on the huge supplies being harvested in countries like the United States. Attention will be dominated by the kind of demand the USDA will project in China, the world's largest consumer of cotton, and in India and Pakistan, where the crop has suffered from poor weather.
Jobe Moss, analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas, said the foreign figures are the only things that can move the market since estimates on supplies are fairly well known already.
"The fulcrum will be the foreign numbers in the report," said Brown.
After slipping ever so slightly after the start, cotton futures clawed its way higher on buying by small speculators but those same accounts lightened up going into the close of business, dealers said.
They said the market paid little heed to the weekly USDA export sales data, where US cotton sales reached a hefty 475,800 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), from 325,500 RBs in last week's report.
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp put resistance in the March contract at 53.20 and 54.05 cents, with support at 52.45 and 52 cents. Floor dealers said estimated final volume amounted to 12,500 lots, up from Wednesday's tally of 5,908 lots. Open interest rose 448 lots to 97,883 contracts as of December 7.