ICE cotton futures edged higher on Thursday in thin volume trading on a better-than-expected US export sales report amid a weaker dollar. "Export sales were modestly greater than expected... The market traded higher post the report's release, but volume was very light" said Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group.
Weekly export sales data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed net upland sales totalled 152,400 running bales for the previous week, up 32 percent from the week before. The May contract expires on Monday and will probably go above 80 cents, so the July contract could run up there as well, according to Keith Brown, principal at cotton broker Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
The May cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.17 percent at 80.83 cents per lb.
The July cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.14 cent, or 0.18 percent, at 78.91 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 78.68 and 79.33 cents a lb. Total futures market volume fell by 1,299 to 14,094 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,514 to 261,572 contracts in the previous session. The dollar index was down 0.48 percent.