ICE cotton futures slipped to their lowest in two-weeks in low volume trade on Wednesday as demand woes loom for the natural fibre due to the protracted US-China trade war, along with expectations of a big harvest from major producers. The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures US December fell 0.1% at 60.35 cents per lb as of 2:08 p.m. EDT (1808 GMT), having fallen to the lowest level since September 12 at 59.63 cents/lb.
It traded within a range of 59.63 and 60.7 cents a lb. "Trend of the market is down - we have a huge crop in the US and India, we have no trade deal, we don't have the legislation to replace NAFTA - all those are negative to the market," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. Cotton prices have slipped nearly 18% so far this year due to the drawn-out tariff war between the natural fibre's top consumer China and one of the top producers - the United States. Total futures market volume fell by 7,983 to 11,804 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 66 to 233,725 contracts in the previous session.