ICE cotton futures rose for the second straight session on Thursday, supported by strong export sales data but gains were capped as Mexico's president cancelled a planned summit with his US counterpart Donald Trump. "Mexico is one of our largest export customers so that would cast something of a cloud over the market's future potential export business," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto scrapped a planned summit with Trump in the face of insistent tweets from the US president demanding Mexico pay for a border wall, a deepening rift that threatens Mexican efforts to salvage trade ties.
The prospect of reduced participation from China due to commencement of the Chinese Lunar New Year from the weekend also weighed on the market, Brown said.
Export data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed net upland sales of 457,000 running bales of cotton for last week, which is a marketing year high. This was up 32 percent from the previous week.
The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.31 cent, or 0.42 percent, at 74.19 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 73.67 and 74.93 cents a lb.
Total futures market volume rose by 3,248 to 27,280 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 682 to 263,646 contracts in the previous session.