REUTERS: Cotton slides to 2-week low on China demand risks
REUTERS: Cotton slides to 2-week low on China demand risks

REUTERS: Cotton slides to 2-week low on China demand risks

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Aug 17 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures extended their decline to a two-week low on Thursday, on concerns over demand from top buyer China as well as recent rains in the key West Texas growing regions.

* The most-active December cotton contract CTZ3 fell 0.83 cents, or about 1%, to 83.89 cents per lb at 12:32 p.m. EDT (1632 GMT).

* Prices were on track to fall for a fourth straight session, having touched their lowest since Aug. 3.

* There was some rain in West Texas last weekend and that sent the market on a downward track, and today's export sales report "wasn't enough to get you going," said Jack Scoville, vice president at Chicago-based Price Futures Group.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly export sales report showed net sales of 186,300 running bales (RB) for 2023/2024, primarily for China at 138,400 RB, including decreases of 2,100 RB. EXP/COT

* China has all sorts of economic problems so the prospects of trying to return as a major customer of U.S. cotton are kind of dropping, Scoville added.

* A major Chinese asset manager told its investors that it needs to restructure its debt, raising concerns that a chain of defaults could spread through the financial sector and deliver a destabilising shock to the country's weakened economy.

* "Our production is probably going to be less this year... but you got to be able to sell it and if you have no buyers, it doesn't matter how little you produce so right now the markets' looking for buyers," said Scoville.

Reporting by Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli


Source: Reuters

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