Cotton futures rose as much as 2% on Wednesday, helped by mill buying and a recovery in stock markets, while investors awaited weekly federal export sales data from the US Department of Agriculture.
Cotton contracts for May rose 0.25 cent, or 0.4%, to 63.02 cents per lb as of 2:19 p.m. EST (1919 GMT), trading within a range of 62.87 and 64.05 cents a lb.
“The cotton market is following the stock market today," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi, adding that “there has been some good mill buying between 60 and 63 cents."
News that former Vice President Joe Biden unexpectedly won at least nine of the 14 states up for grabs in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary race cheered investors and sparked a recovery in US equities.
Traders now eye the weekly export sales report from the USDA due on Thursday.
Last week, USDA reported net sales of 214,600 Running Bales (RB) for 2019/2020 for the week ended February 20, while exports were at 324,100 RB.
“Export demand from other countries (apart from China) has been very good and I expect that to continue," Varner said.
Limiting cotton's advance, the dollar index rose 0.3% after falling to near a two-month low in the previous session.
A stronger greenback makes commodities priced in U.S dollars, more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Total futures market volume fell by 3,216 to 33,674 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 265 to 201,743 contracts in the previous session.