Net all-cotton weekly export sales for this season and next rose to a combined 283,900 RB. Commitments for 2017-18 still up 12% from cumulative sales a year ago. New-crop bookings stand at 30% of the forecast. Exports hold onto lead. Mills priced 5,054 July on-call lots.
Cotton futures finished higher Friday, ending a hectic week in which prices powered to new four-year highs on heavy volume and open expanded to near a record high.
Spot July edged up 15 points to close at 93.30 cents, in the lower third of its 177-point range established by early morning from down 43 points at 92.72 to up 134 points at 94.49 cents. It gained 409 points for the week, setting a new contract high at 96.40 on Wednesday before reversing lower.
December rose 72 points to settle at 92.36 cents, in the upper half of its 179-point range from 91.21 to 93 cents. For the week, December gained 571 points. It also posted its new contract high on Wednesday at 93.73 cents. Contracts beyond December gained 49 to 116 points on the day.
Volume dipped to an electronically estimated 57,500 lots from 59,120 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 31,759 lots or 54%, EFS 590 lots and EFP two lots.
Net all-cotton export sales for shipment this season and next rose to a combined 283,900 running bales during the week ended May 24 from 203,900 RB the previous week and 277,700 RB of old-crop, new-crop sales during the corresponding week last year.
Upland net sales of 16,700 RB for this season, a marketing year low for the second straight week, reflected gross sales of 68,200 RB and cancellations of 51,500 RB. Sales went to 15 countries and cancellations were primarily for China, South Korea and Indonesia.
All-cotton 2017-18 commitments — outstanding sales of 4.973 million RB plus shipments — edged up to 16.871 million RB, still 112% of the USDA export estimate. The lead over year-ago commitments narrowed 70,000 RB to 2.483 million or to 17%.
New-crop net sales of upland and Pima combined of 245,700 RB, up from 152,200 RB the week before, brought 2018-19 commitments to 4.54 million RB, widening the lead over forward bookings a year ago by 76,000 RB to 1.457 million RB.
Commitments for 2018-19 stood at 30% of the USDA forecast, compared with year-ago forward sales at 21% of the current 2017-18 estimate. New-crop sales went to nine countries, led by China, and were partially offset by cancellations of 4,400 RB for India.
All-cotton shipments of 384,200 RB, down from 421,000 RB the prior week but up 3,000 RB from a year ago, raised the total for the season to 11.802 million RB, 79% of the USDA estimate. A year ago, shipments were 81% pf final shipments.
To achieve the USDA projection, shipments now need to average roughly 323,400 RB per week through the end of the marketing year on July 31. Unshipped sales then will be rolled forward, swelling 2018-19 commitments.
Meanwhile, mills priced 5,054 on-call lots in July last week to reduce their outstanding sales there to 41,499 lots, according to call data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after the close Thursday. That represented 35.9% of July’s declining open interest.
Certified stocks grew 2,024 bales to 76,385 on Thursday, ICE’s daily report showed. Awaiting review were 1,980 bales at Galveston. Open interest expanded 5,005 lots to 317,849, with July’s down 4,581 lots to 104,630 and December’s up 8,423 lots to 165,026. Coming into Friday, open interest had grown 17,012 lots from a week ago.