Cotton futures rose one percent on Thursday, marking an over three-month high, supported by short-covering ahead of the first notice day of the December contract next week. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US rose for the fourth straight session, touching a session high of 72.75 cents per lb, the highest since August 12.
"The market is up due to short covering in advance of first notice day for December which is Wednesday," said Jordan Lea, chairman and co-owner of Eastern Trading in Greenville, South Carolina. US government data showed net upland sales totalled 214,400 running bales of cotton for the week ended November 10, up 27 percent from the previous week. The sales data was disappointing considering the levels usually seen during a US cotton industry summit week, according to Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis.
The 2016 Sourcing USA Summit was held between November 5-8, 2016 in California, according to the event website. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.85 cent, or 1.19 percent, at 72.54 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 69.83 and 72.75 cents a lb. Total futures market volume rose by 7,233 to 53,485 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 6,736 to 245,932 contracts in the previous session.