NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures fell on Thursday as recent rains in West Texas overshadowed a weekly federal report showing higher export sales.

Cotton contracts for July fell 0.64 cent, or 0.8% to 82.28 cents per lb by 1:03 p.m. EDT (1703 GMT). They traded within a range of 81.75 and 83.79 cents a lb.

Showers in the top-cotton producing West Texas region over the past few weeks have increased the possibility for an improving crop.

While the weather in July is uncertain and forecasts project less rainfall in the next 10-days, current precipitation is enough to help cotton planting in both West Texas and the Rio Grand Valley, leading the market lower, said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland.

Varner however noted that net sales and exports in the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) weekly export sales report were a positive.

The report showed net sales almost doubled at 108,000 Running Bales (RB) for 2020/2021 from the prior week and exports also rose 25% to 345,400 RB.

Cotton prices are likely to move sideways in the near-term and are likely to be helped by planting in south-east US shifting mainly from cotton to soyabeans and to wheat and grain sorghum in West Texas, said Louis Barbera, partner and analyst at VLM Commodities Ltd

Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of May 19 totalled 121,620 480-lb bales, up from 112,318 in the previous session.