December closed almost dead even for week. Mills boosted their unpriced call position to a record 13.4 million bales. U.S. upland cotton under loan totaled 131,500 RB. Cert stocks rose from multi-year low.

Cotton futures traded lethargically within the prior-day and previous-week ranges Friday and finished with losses of 21 to 52 points.

December lost the most, settling at 68.45 cents, in the lower quarter of its 94-point range from up 25 points at 69.22 to down 69 points at 68.28 cents. It closed almost dead even for the week, down a single point, lost 248 points or 3.5% for the month and eased just 14 points for the third quarter.

March dipped 27 points to close at 67.78 cents, trading within a 72-point range from 68.28 to 67.56 cents. For the week, it gained 20 points. Maturing October didn’t trade.

Volume slowed to an estimated 14,951 lots from 12,872 lots the prior session when spreads accounted for 3,786 lots or 29%, EFS 220 lots and EFP nine lots. Options volume fell to 1,559 lots (746 calls and 813 puts) from 9,640 lots (6,756 calls and 2,884 puts).

Traders noted that mills boosted their total unpriced on-call position by a net 1,435 lots last week to a new record 134,084 lots (13.408 million bales) while also pricing 1,285 lots in December.

This marked the fourth total new record high in a row, according to call data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after the close Thursday. The fixations in December reduced the unpriced mill position there to 29,906 lots (2.991 million bales).

Producers added 532 lots to hike their total unpriced position to 37,699 lots, resulting in the overall net call difference rising 903 lots to 96,385 (9.639 million bales), 40.8% of the open interest.

A year ago, total unfixed positions were 76,841 lots for mills and 23,929 lots for producers, with a net call difference of 52,912 lots representing 21.1% of the open interest.

The massive unfixed on-call sales, including a batch believed belonging to foreign interests, have been seen as offering scale-down support against speculative long liquidation selling shown in the latest CFTC traders-commitments report.

Producers nudged their unpriced December position up 72 lots to 17,503 lots (1.75 million bales). The net call difference declined 1,357 lots to 12,403, 9.2% of December’s falling open interest.

On the crop scene, U.S. outstanding 2017-crop upland loans rose by 30,028 running bales to 131,500 RB during the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.

Entries were 52,639 RB and repayments were made on 22,611 RB. All the cotton under loan was Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents. No Form A loans had been made to individual growers.

Futures open interest dropped 719 lots to 232,788 on Thursday, with December’s down 142 lots to 132,865 and March’s down 771 lots to 69,122. Certified stocks increased 1,337 bales to 3,020 after a prolonged decline to the lowest in many years.