Cotton futures finished mixed on Wednesday as the market pruned early losses on commercial buying ahead of the holiday, analysts said. The cotton market will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. Trading resumes in a shortened session on Friday.
Global stocks around the world sank to 6-week lows, with Wall Street on track for a 6th day of losses as slowing factory activity in China and Germany increased recession fears. The spot December cotton contract on ICE Futures US rose 0.76 cent to finish at 90.71 cents per lb, dealing from 89.22 to 91.70 cents.
Now most-active March cotton fell 0.21 cent to end at 90.91 cents, moving from 90.10 to 91.91 cents. Total volume traded Wednesday hit over 12,700 lots, about 45 percent below the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed. "I'm impressed at the way cotton is holding...considering the world is falling apart at the seams," said independent analyst Mike Stevens in Louisiana.
Traders said the main suspicion for the relative strength cotton is showing is due to suspected buying by China, the world's biggest producer and consumer of cotton. "The belief is that they are in the market. It's not just the government rebuilding their reserves but some mills as well are said to be buying," a dealer said.
In the last two weeks, US Agriculture Department's weekly export sales report showed that China bought over 1.6 million running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each) of cotton. Purchases in other weeks were far more modest. The increased pace of Chinese buying is also due in part to the fact that prices, which peaked in March at $2.27 a lb, are now down to less than $1 and could soon break down to the mid-80 cents level this week or next. Open interest in the spot December contract stood at 893 lots as of Tuesday. Brokers believe all of that cotton is under the control of a single merchant.
Open interest in the cotton market, usually taken as an indicator of investor exposure in the market, stood at 137,106 lots as of November 22, from the prior session's tally of 137,209 lots, exchange data showed. Total volume traded Tuesday reached 24,770 lots as of November 22 versus the previous tally of 32,919 lots, according to exchange data.