Cotton futures fell for the second straight session to their lowest in more than a week on end-of-quarter selling by speculators. "The market is witnessing disappointment today," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. "It tried to rally and got above 70 cents and saw that perhaps the adverse weather in Texas was not as bad as people thought and I think that caused the speculators to retreat." he noted.
The market also awaited the release of the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report on Thursday. Cotton contracts for December settled down 1.26 cent, or 1.81 percent, at 68.48 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 68.28 - the lowest since Sept. 20 - and 69.91 cents a lb.
CBOT December corn CZ6 was down 1-1/4 cents at $3.30-1/2 a bushel and CBOT November soybeans SX6 were off 1/4 cent at $9.52-1/4 a bushel. Total futures market volume rose by 1,618 to 17,824 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 94 to 253,355 contracts in the previous session.