Cotton futures market was fairly quiet ahead of the USDA planted acreage report to be released this coming Wednesday. The general expectation is a bigger acreage than what was anticipated back in March - pegged at 10.51 millions acres, which prompted the market to trade lower in the mid session Monday. July open interest is winding down slowly since the FND with limited quantity of notices posted each day.
The spec hedge report as of last Friday the 25th shows that specs marginally reduced their long positions. Their net position is now 7% long, as compared to 10.3% net long a week ago. The cotton market is still in a bullish trend, but has run into congestion in the past few weeks. Expecting to see attempts to the upside, but the sideways pattern should hold for the time being. We’re looking at the USDA acreage report as well as the weather report for more directions on the market.