Jan 28 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell on Monday as concerns over slowing Chinese economy rattled global equities and a drop in oil prices drove investors away from riskier assets.
* The most active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. - the March
contract - fell 0.60 cent, or 0.81 percent, at 73.53
cents per lb by 1:43 p.m. EST (1843 GMT). It traded within a range of 73.15 to 74.13 cents a lb.
* “Weak corporate earnings announcements have concerned the markets, which adopted a risk-off attitude, said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York, adding drop in oil prices was also affecting cotton.
* U.S. stocks fell on Monday as weak forecasts from Caterpillar and Nvidia fueled worries about a slowdown in China.
* Oil prices dropped more than 3 percent, headed for its biggest one day drop in a month, on oversupply concerns and China demand worries.
* Falling oil prices lower the cost of synthetic fibers, which use petroleum and dent the appeal of cotton, a competing natural fiber.
* A Chinese delegation is due to travel to Washington this week for fresh talks to resolve the trade dispute between the world’s biggest economies
* “Investors have already been burned multiple times from expecting a quick deal with China, so they are more cautious now,” said Crivorot.
* In 2018, Cotton prices marked its first yearly decline in four years, largely due to the trade tussle between top exporter the United States and China, the biggest consumer of the natural fiber.
* U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to release it’s monthly crop supply/demand report on Feb. 8 after President Donald Trump reached a tentative agreement with U.S. lawmakers for three weeks in stop-gap funding that ended a partial U.S. government shutdown.
* Total futures market volume fell by 11,101 to 13,951 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 98 to 230,811 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks <CERT-COT-STX> deliverable as of Jan. 25 totaled 120,283 480-lb bales, unchanged from 120,283 in the previous session.
(Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
