Farms.com Home   News

Cotton Market Weekly(18/09/2014)

Cotton futures were unable to maintain last week’s impressive gains as selling pressure returned to the market amid uncertainty about China’s new cotton policy and weather conditions. This week began with contracts suffering triple-digit losses at the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

The market gave back much of last week’s 369-point advance on Monday as profit taking seemed to take command, and contracts held near the low end of their daily ranges prior to settlement. December cotton settled 216 points lower at 65.84 cents per pound. One market newsletter cited tight near-term supplies of U.S. cotton as the main reason for last week’s gains but added the approach of harvest may be bringing some pressure back to the market.

That pressure carried over into Tuesday’s ICE session, although losses were much more moderate as market news was lacking which provided little direction. December traded in a range of less than 100 points and settled at 65.55 cents, down 29 points. Estimated volume of 17,377 contracts was much less than Monday’s volume of 26,081 contracts.

Cotton futures opened slightly lower Wednesday before gradually working their way back to positive ground. December moved up to 66.20 cents per pound where it stalled and eventually settled at 65.68 cents, up 13 points. Volume at ICE was notably lower at an estimated 10,300 contracts. Two factors mentioned by one analyst were possibly heavy rain moving into Arizona, New Mexico and Texas this week and news that China will pump several billion dollars into its banking system to help boost economic growth.

Locally heavy rainfall in parts of West Texas, coupled with persistent overcast conditions and cool temperatures, has raised concerns among some traders this week about the potential impact on yields and lint quality. The area’s crop had made good progress with heat units, but it has slowed significantly since the Labor Day holiday. The unfavorable weather conditions were expected to last at least through this weekend.

Rainfall reports from West Texas to the Coastal Bend had surprisingly little impact on cotton prices Thursday as selling pressure at ICE returned. December cotton traded in a 116-point range before settling 63 points lower at 65.05 cents per pound. Rain also was in the forecast for the northern Delta late this week, but clear and warmer weather was expected to return by the weekend which should benefit the crop there and allow defoliation to increase across the region.

Meanwhile, net sales of U.S. upland cotton totaled 75,000 bales in the week ended Sept. 11, according to USDA’s latest export sales and shipment report. The featured buyers were Mexico and Turkey. Export shipments for the week were reported at 104,500 bales, up 25 percent from the previous week and 7 percent from the four-week average. China, Mexico, Vietnam, and Turkey were the top four destinations.

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Glimpse At Idaho Farmers & Ranchers

Video: Glimpse At Idaho Farmers & Ranchers

IHere is a glimpse of some of our Idaho farmers and ranchers. We thank them, as we do all agriculturists across our country, for providing our food and fiber.