US cotton futures ended down in holiday-shortened trade on Friday after a failed attempt to break out above the weekly high touched off a light bout of liquidation and snapped a string of gains for the week, brokers said.
The market will trade in an abbreviated session with ICE agricultural products trading in open-outcry closing early at 2 pm (1900 GMT) and the electronic platform at 2:15 pm, instead of the usual 2:45 pm. Cotton for March delivery on ICE Futures closed down 0.18 cent at 46.18 cents per lb, after dealing in a session range between 45.50 and 46.45 cents.
Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana said the market had been in an upward slope all week, but broke free of that bullish momentum after prices matched and failed to surpass Monday's peak at 46.45 cents. "Volume Monday was the lightest in 3-1/2 years, and it went downhill from there," he said.
"The market has been hemmed in between its 9-day (45.47) and 21-day (45.12) moving averages and resistance at the 50-day moving average (46.40)." Volume in the March contract amounted to 1,588 lots versus Wednesday's count of 915 lots.
Weekly export sales of cotton from the US Agriculture Department came in better than expected at 118,900 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each) compared with market expectations of 80,000 to 85,000 RBs. Shipments totalled 210,700 RBs. ICE's total cotton volume for Wednesday totalled 1,360 lots, exchange data showed. Open interest in the cotton market rose by 167 lots to 124,179 lots.