Benchmark cotton futures on ICE Futures US fell on Wednesday after failing to sustain moves above a key technical level despite a strong move upwards the prior session, with a stronger US dollar also providing pressure. "When we could not move above the 10-day moving average when we opened up last night, we began to unravel," said Sharon Johnson, introducing broker with Wedbush Securities in Atlanta. "If you can't get through some of these critical moving averages, the market really loses steam."
The most-active December contract briefly exceeded its 10-day moving average of 64.66 cents a lb on Tuesday, before settling just below it. Cotton traded above Wednesday's 10-day moving average of 64.57 in early trading, but its inability to push above the level prompted a loss of momentum. The ICE cotton contract for December delivery settled down by 0.71 cent on Wednesday, a 1.1 percent loss, to 63.89 cents per pound.
Certified cotton stocks deliverable as of July 28 totalled 118,005 480-lb bales, down from 120,060 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 0.40 percent. The Thomson Reuters Core Commodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 0.54 percent.