ICE cotton futures were mostly unchanged on Thursday as market participants closely tracked the status of US-China trade negotiations ahead of a weekly exports sales report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Cotton contracts for December rose 0.3 cent, or 0.05%, to 64.25 cents per lb by 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT), trading within a range of 63.85 to 64.92 cents per lb.
“Investors are just waiting for any new developments over the US-China trade front, in the meantime it (cotton) continues to trade sideways," said Bailey Thomen, consultant at INTL FCStone Inc.
US-China trade negotiations have ‘hit a snag' over farm purchases, with Beijing not wanting a deal that looks one-sided in favor of the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, China's Commerce Ministry said canceling tariffs was an important condition for reaching a trade agreement, a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to ramp up tariffs on Chinese goods if the countries failed to reach a deal on trade.
The USDA's weekly export sales report is due on Friday.
The USDA in its weekly export-sales report for the period ended Oct. 31 showed net sales of 164,500 running bales (RB) for 2019/20 marketing year, up 52% from the previous week and 2% from the prior four-week average.
Total futures market volume fell by 16,375 to 36,011 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,387 to 231,766 contracts in the previous session.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Nov. 13 totaled 54,462 480-lb bales, up from 51,114 in the previous session.