ICE cotton futures were subdued on Thursday on muted speculative activity ahead of a federal acreage report due next week. The US Department of Agriculture will release its prospective crop plantings report on March 31. "We are coming to an index fund roll period and an acreage report on the 31st. This is not a level where many want to come in and get long in this market," said Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis.
"Ahead of the end of the month there's not enough fresh spec money to push it higher," he added. Weekly export sales data from the US government showed net upland sales totaled 328,200 running bales for the previous week, up 4 percent from the week before. The May cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.07 cent, or 0.09 percent, at 77.27 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 77.23 and 77.97 cents a lb. Total futures market volume fell by 8,283 to 19,113 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,573 to 279,703 contracts in the previous session.