Cotton prices closed higher on Wednesday as overnight business on the electronic market drove prices up and a lack of volume allowed prices to stay up, said analysts. In addition, cotton prices inched up as they tracked higher prices in corn, soybeans, and wheat, said Sharon Johnson, senior cotton analyst at First Capitol Group in Atlanta.
The New York Board of Trade's key December cotton contract settled with a 0.53 cent gain at 63.51 cents per lb, moving from 63.25 to 63.80 cents. March cotton was up 0.26 to end at 66.40 cents. The rest gained 0.35 to 1.13 cents by the close.
The IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic cotton market saw the December cotton contract gain 0.40 cent to 63.38 cents at 2:52 pm EDT (1852 GMT), moving from 62.83 to 63.83 cents. Cotton's thin trading volume was due in part to a small NYBOT open-outcry pit population as brokers were delayed by rain and flooding in New York City, Johnson said.
In recent weeks, benchmark cotton has traded in a band roughly between 62 and 65 cents as traders await US Department of Agriculture supply/demand figures due Friday.
The August report will provide the first actual US cotton crop surveys of the 2007/08 marketing year. Flanagan Trading Corp sees support for the December contract at 62.00 and 62.75 cents, with resistance at 63.60 and 64.25 cents.
Open-outcry volume on Tuesday stood at 5,958 lots while screen business reached 10,362 lots. Open interest in the cotton market was at 214,503 lots as of August 7, down 2,451 lots from the previous session.