ICE cotton futures edged higher on Wednesday as the market drew optimism from hopes of a $2 trillion rescue package to counter the strain on economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
Cotton contracts for May rose 0.61 cent, or 1.2%, to 53.50 cents per lb by 2:19 p.m. EDT (1819 GMT).
It traded within a range of 52.22 and 54.28 cents a lb.
"The market is mostly following the broader stock markets again," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate with INTL FCStone, adding, "the pending $2 trillion deal out of Washington is what everyone is waiting for."
US senators will vote on a $2 trillion bipartisan package of legislation to alleviate the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, hoping it will become law quickly.
Hopes that the US fiscal stimulus will ease the economic devastation caused by virus lockdowns lifted world equity indexes for a second day.
At least 19,598 people have died and 435,470 have been infected world wide and with several countries under lockdown, global economic activities have come to a halt, spurring fears of the slowdown that might linger
on even after the virus is gone.
Cotton market is going to be rangebound in the low-to-mid 50s until it has more visibility on how the balance sheet looks like, said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.
Traders now await the weekly export sales report from the US Department of Agriculture due on Thursday.
"Most people are expecting export sales to be lower this week based on the slowdown in global shipping and decrease in demand for cotton," Thomen added.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of March 24 totaled 28,446 480-lb bales, down from 40,817 in the previous session.

NEW YORK: The following were the fluctuations observed during the day:

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                                  Current Session                      Prior Day
           Open    High     Low    Last    Time    Set     Chg      Vol      Set
================================================================================
May'20    53.19   54.28   52.22   53.13   12:49     -      0.24   13452    52.89
                                         Mar 25
Jul'20    53.25   54.12   52.37   53.29   12:49     -      0.28    9035    53.01
                                         Mar 25
Oct'20    55.06   55.86   54.82   54.82   10:29     -      0.12      10    54.70
                                         Mar 25
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