Cotton futures settled quietly mixed on Thursday and the lack of leads may keep the market adrift before the weekend, brokers said. ICE Futures open-outcry December cotton contract rose 0.06 cent to close at 63.49 cents a lb, moving from 63.15 to 63.68 cents. It was an inside day since the range was within Wednesday's 62.15 to 63.77 cents band.
March cotton gained 0.10 to 67.01 cents. Two contracts aside, the rest lost 0.05 to 0.25 cent. The ICE December electronic cotton contract added 0.03 cent to 63.46 cents at 2:50 pm EDT (1850 GMT), moving from 63.16 to 63.96 cents. "Cotton's trying to decide what to do," said Sharon Johnson, cotton expert for First Capitol Group in Atlanta, Georgia.
She said dealings were likely becalmed by the fact that top consumer China is out for its national holiday and many players were attending an industry conference in Liverpool, England. Further ahead, many market sources are looking toward next week's release of the monthly supply/demand report from the US Agriculture Department.
The market's strength is tied to the strong belief that US cotton sowings will be even lower in 2008 because high grains prices will prompt American farmers to sow less cotton and plant more wheat and corn among others. US cotton plantings in 2007 were at an 18-year low of 11.01 million acres, the US Agriculture Department said.
The market derived little inspiration from the USDA's weekly export sales data. The government said total US cotton sales hit 100,800 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), from last week's 140,300 RBs and trade belief it would range from 80,000 to 150,000 RBs.
US cotton shipments stood at 258,000 RBs, against 265,600 RBs and trade expectations of 200,000 to 250,000 RBs. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the open-outcry December cotton contract at 64.05 and 64.85 cents, with support at 63.25 and 62.70 cents.
Open-outcry cotton volume Wednesday was 7,969 lots, while screen business reached 17,055 lots. Open interest in the cotton market rose 619 lots to 233,231 lots as of October 3.