US cotton futures ended mixed on Monday as the market consolidated after last week's commodity sell-off and players adjusted positions before the release of a key government crop report, analysts said. The US Agriculture Department's monthly supply/demand report is due on Wednesday. It will contain the first preliminary estimate of supply/demand conditions in the upcoming 2011/12 marketing year (August/July).
"I think people are waiting to see (the report)," said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana. The key July cotton contract on ICE Futures US fell 0.16 cent to settle at $1.454 per lb, trading from $1.4321 to $1.4856. It was the lowest close for cotton in almost four months, Thomson Reuters data showed. The new-crop December cotton futures rose 1.49 cents to close at $1.2378 cents per lb.
Volume traded stood at almost 9,200 lots, nearly two-thirds below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed. Analysts said the USDA report would be a starting point for the market in gauging world supplies, consumption and ending stocks in 2011/12.
The report will rely a lot on what market sources say is an educated guess for supply and demand since detailed surveys of cotton crops in the United States and elsewhere will not be available until the USDA releases August supply figures. Investor interest in the cotton market continued to weaken. Open interest dropped to 147,578 lots as of May 6, the lowest since October 2009, from 148,291 lots in the previous session, data from ICE Futures US showed. Volume traded in the cotton market was 14,795 lots as of May 6, versus the previous tally of 22,693 lots, exchange data showed.