Benchmark cotton futures on ICE rose the most in two weeks on Tuesday after a drop to more than three-month lows triggered physical demand, resulting in short-covering by speculators. "With a lack of selling pressure on the physical side, the path of least resistance is up," said Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant at Risk Analytics in Memphis, Tennessee.
Rose noted that there was a big amount of short-covering when prices approached last week's settlement level at 64.64 cents a lb. December cotton on ICE Futures US settled up 0.8 cent on Tuesday, a 1.3 percent gain, at 64.60 cents per pound, marking the second-month's largest single-session gain since July 14. Earlier in the session, it fell as low as 63.56 cents a lb, the lowest for the second-month since April 23.
Total futures market volume fell by 603 to 21,910 lots. Data showed total open interest at 177,539 contracts, up 897 from the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of July 27 totalled 120,060 480-lb bales, down from 122,861 in the previous session. The Relative Strength Index in the most-active contract rose to 43.280.