July cotton fell 2.26 cents to 89.84 cents Tuesday, finishing a second day lower after last week’s Alberto-inspired rally took prices to a peak of 96.40 on Wednesday. Prices eased with beneficial showers in the seven-day forecast.
July cotton prices closed down 2.26 cents and the December contract was down 1.96 cents, both falling a second day in the aftermath of last week’s Alberto-inspired rally. The seven-day forecast looks helpful to cotton crops here in the U.S. with rain expected near the Mississippi Delta and across the southeastern U.S. Meanwhile, west Texas continues to deal with drought and is only expecting light rain amounts.
Considering the drought in Texas, the U.S. cotton crop appears to be doing fairly well, so far. Late Monday, USDA said 76% of the cotton was planted, and 9% of it was squaring, near its usual paces. 42% of crops were rated good-to-excellent which is down from 61% a year ago. 22% of crops in Texas were rated poor and only 1% as very poor.
Recently, China’s state reserve sold 22,600 tons of cotton, which was also 75% of the amount offered. Dow Jones reported that drier and warmer weather is expected to benefit cotton crops in the North China Plain this week.
The ICE daily stocks report showed certified stocks up 1,683 on Monday, at 78,666.
In cash online trading, The Seam showed 2,011 bales sold Monday at an average price of 62.43 cents. Average loan value was 40.68 cents and 24,339 bales were offered.
The Cotlook A Index of world values for Monday, June 4, was up 0.05 at 100.75 cents, putting the premium over the July futures settlement at 11.02 cents.