ICE cotton futures climbed 2 percent on Thursday, touching a seven-month high, as investors rolled over their position to the March contract after expiry of December, with stronger cotton shipments pushing the prices up further. "December cotton expired yesterday at 75.17 cents and March was at a discount to that ... so March is coming up to where December concluded," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.
Cotton contracts for March settled up 1.51 cents, or 2.08 percent, at 74.23 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 72.1 and 74.27 cents a lb - its highest level since May 4. The contract also posted its biggest one-day percentage rise since Nov. 20.
"We also had a marketing year high on shipments today, and I think that is much more important than sales because cotton that has been shipped is gone, while a sale can be cancelled," Brown added. Earlier in the day, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported net upland sales of 186,600 running bales for 2017/2018, down 33 percent from the previous week, in its weekly export sales report.
Exports of 246,800 running bales, a marketing-year high, were up noticeably from the previous week, the report said. "The data was above what we need for weekly average to reach the USDA estimates and any week we are selling more than that average should be supportive to the market," said Beau Stephenson, merchant at Omnicotton Inc.
Total futures market volume rose by 15,818 to 34,322 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 668 to 249,869 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Dec. 6 totalled 47,628 480-lb bales, unchanged from 47,628 in the previous session.
The dollar index was up 0.18 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.14 percent.