ICE cotton futures fell to their lowest levels in 3-1/2 weeks on Friday, as a stronger dollar weighed on prices and the ongoing US harvest led to seasonal pressure, prompting the fibre to suffer its sharpest weekly decline in nearly two months. "The dollar is super strong, and seasonally this is a time of depressed prices," said Keith Brown, a Moultrie, Georgia-based cotton trader.
December cotton on ICE Futures US settled down 0.29 cent, or 0.5 percent, at 61.66 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 61.65 and 62.20 cents a lb. The contract lost 2.7 percent on the week, its sharpest weekly decline since the week ended September 18. Total futures market volume rose by 9,210 to 38,026 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 910 to 194,965 contracts in the previous session.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Nov 5 totalled 42,322 480-lb bales, up from 41,975 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 1.27 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.73 percent. The Relative Strength Index in the most-active contract fell to 44.452.