Cotton futures settled higher on Thursday as the market dawdled while waiting for directional signals for the next move, brokers said. The spot December cotton contract rose 0.28 cent to settle at 68.82 cents per lb, trading from 68.03 to 69.04 cents. It was an inside day as the range held within Wednesday's 67.81 to 69.18 band.
December contract volume came to 8,136 lots at 2:40 pm EST (1940 GMT). Most-active and now benchmark March cotton added 0.42 cent to close at 72.97 cents, moving between 72.03 and 73.20 cents. It likewise had had an inside day when compared to Wednesday's 71.78 to 73.39 range. "It is for a fact featureless," said Mike Stevens, an analyst for brokers SFS Financial in Mandeville, Louisiana.
The firm dollar and weak outside markets initially pushed cotton down to its lows, but gold and soybean futures were higher late on Thursday and the result sharply trimmed losses in cotton. There was also some liquidation in the spot December contract, which will soon go into delivery. Open interest in the December contract stood at 12,444 lots as of November 18, down 8.514 lots from the previous session.
The market may have also received a constructive boost from government data released on Thursday. The US Agriculture Department's weekly export sales report showed total US cotton sales at 268,100 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), from 117,300 RBs in last week's report. US cotton export shipments stood at 124,300 RBs, versus 155,300 RBs in the last USDA report.
A report by Jack Scoville, an analyst for brokers The Price Futures Group, said market participants are "still worry about yield and quality losses to crops in the Delta and Southeast, but forecasts for today call for dry conditions or light showers and harvest should continue with few problems."
Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees resistance in the December cotton contract at 69.35 and 70.10 cents, with support at 68.40 and 67.50 cents. Total volume Wednesday came to 25,801 lots, down from the prior tally of 25,507 lots, ICE Futures US said. Open interest stood at 169,088 lots as of November 18, from the prior count of 170,527 lots, the exchange said.