US cotton futures fell 3 percent to close at six-week lows on Friday as a rebounding dollar sparked a sell-off across commodities. "The strong dollar seems to have had a really big impact on cotton today. Everything else pales in comparison," said Sharon Johnson, senior cotton analyst at First Capitol Group in Atlanta, Georgia.
Cotton for July delivery on ICE Futures US settled down 1.77 cents at 55.11 cents a lb - the contract's lowest close since the week ending April 26 - after trading between 56.89 and 54.85 cents. Technical charts suggested support for July cotton at between 54.65 and 52.75 cents for the coming week.
Futures for new-crop December closed down 1.52 cents at 59.57 cents a lb. Recent rains over the key cotton growing area of Texas also caused cotton to give back gains this week from a rally driven partly by stress to crops from months of drought.
Volume in July cotton stood at 11,779 lots, versus Thursday's 8,636 lots. Total volume in ICE cotton after the settlement of the last session was 14,396 contracts, versus the previous tally of 22,436 contracts, exchange data showed. Open interest fell by 355 lots to 134,642.