ICE cotton futures fell nearly 1 percent, pressured by speculative selling and weaker demand, while a slide in the equity markets added to the downbeat sentiment.
– The most active cotton contract on ICE Futures US, the May contract settled down 0.72 cent, or 0.97 percent, at 73.13 cents per lb.
– The contract traded within a range of 73.09 cents to 74.64 cents per lb.
– Mr Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago said, “It was just lack of demand and some speculative selling,” adding that weakness in stock markets was also pulling down prices.
– He said, “Market recovered pretty well, so they (speculators) want to take some profit off the table without any specifically bullish news on cotton.”
– Wall Street’s main indexes fell 1 percent after data showed a surprise drop in December construction spending, which triggered profit-taking and offset optimism that a US-China trade deal was imminent.
– A report said US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, could sign a formal trade pact at a summit around March 27, given progress in talks between the two countries.
– Total futures market volume rose by 3,059 to 25,667 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,097 to 223,246 contracts in the previous session.
– Certificated cotton stocks <CERT-COT-STX> deliverable as of March 1 totaled 131,498 480-lb bales, up from 131,035 in the previous session.
