Sept 29 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell in low-volume trade on Friday, pressured by the approaching harvest in the United States and fading weather concerns in top producing state Texas.
Cotton contracts for December settled down 0.52 cent, or 0.75 percent, at 68.45 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 68.28 and 69.22 cents a lb. The December cotton contract marked the first monthly decline in three, having slid about 3.5 percent in September.
"We are now seeing better weather conditions in Texas. We are looking at harvest beginning probably next week. Cotton moved a little bit lower in sympathy with anticipation of increased harvest pressure," said Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity.
Rains in Texas had led to worries of a delay in harvest, which supported prices earlier in the week. "We are in a consolidation range over the past 10 days or so... and with very low volume the market can be swayed by a few players. The participation has waned in the last week," Rose said.
Total futures market volume rose by 541 to 13,172 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 719 to 232,788 contracts in the previous session.
The market is awaiting the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report in October for damage assessments from hurricanes Harvey and Irma. "Until we get a revision of the USDA numbers early next month and hard, fast yield numbers are realized, a tight price range could be expected," said Ron Lee, general manager at McCleskey Cotton in Bronwood, Georgia. "Numerous reports indicate yields from Louisiana north to the Mississippi Delta have been very disappointing to growers there. A colder and wetter than average August are largely being assigned as the culprit."
Meanwhile, speculators cut their net long position by 5,007 contracts to 57,779 contracts in the week to Sept. 26, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed on Friday.
(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
