Mills raised their unpriced on-call position to 10.986 million bales, up from 7.292 million bales a year ago. New-crop upland loan entries totaled 337 RB and old-crop upland under loan fell to 463,660 RB.

Cotton futures closed mostly on the plus side Friday, with benchmark December leading the gains and finishing above highs of the prior six weeks.

December settled up 46 points at 70.62 cents, a new high close since June 14. It finished just above the midpoint of its tight 62-point trading range between 70.21 and 70.83 cents. December gained 182 points for the week, its third weekly gain in a row for a total of 404 points.

March gained 34 points to close at 70.05 cents and matched December’s 182-point gain for the week. October lost 56 points to close at 70.99 cents, but it gained 77 points for the week.

Volume was estimated at 18,784 lots, barely up from 18,689 lots the prior session when spreads accounted for 5,578 lots or 30%. Options volume declined to 3,606 lots (2,611 calls and 995 puts) from 3,956 lots (2,599 calls and 1,357 puts).

Mills continued to build on their total unpriced on-call position last week, adding 3,787 lots to raise it to 109,855 lots (10.986 million bales), according to weekly on-call data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after the close Thursday.

Producers added 689 lots to bring their unfixed position to 38,286 lots. The net call difference increased 3,098 lots to 71,569, which was 33.1% of the open interest, up from 31.7% a week earlier and 29.8% the week before that.

A year ago, the unfixed positions were 72,922 lots (7.292 million bales) for mills and 24,836 lots for producers, while the net call difference of 48,086 lots was 20.5% of the open interest.

In the December contract, mills added 410 lots and producers priced 28 lots, resulting in the unfixed positions rising to 33,570 lots and dipping to 23,099 lots, respectively. The net call difference widened 430 lots to 10,471 lots, which was 6.7% of December’s declining open interest.

Meanwhile, 337 running bales of 2017-crop upland cotton entered the loan program and remained there during the week ended Monday, USDA reported in the first loan activity report of the new marketing year.

Repayments on 117,316 RB reduced outstanding loans of 2016-crop upland to 463,660 RB. Loans outstanding included 51,239 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 412,421 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.

Futures open interest dropped 503 lots to 216,836, with December’s down 1,361 lots and March’s up 744 lots to 44,047. Certified stocks declined 2,981 bales to 24,596, falling below the 2016 low to the lowest since February 2015.

Source: http://agfax.com/2017/08/04/dtn-cotton-close-finishes-mostly-on-gains/