REUTERS: ICE cotton dips over 2% on speculative selling, wider market jitters
REUTERS: ICE cotton dips over 2% on speculative selling, wider market jitters

REUTERS: ICE cotton dips over 2% on speculative selling, wider market jitters

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Nov 27 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures fell more than 2% to a two-week low on Monday pressured by speculative selling, while declines in the grains and oil markets added to the downbeat mood.

* The second-month March contract CTc2 was down 1.87 cent, or 2.3%, at 79.12 cents per lb at 1:01 pm ET (1801 GMT).

* "We've had a pretty heavy sell-off today and it seems like a lot of it was speculative selling coming in from investors across different asset classes," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management consultant at StoneX Group said.

* In the grain market, Chicago grain and soybean futures tumbled after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, pressured by slow demand and technical selling and as traders liquidated positions ahead of Thursday's first notice day for deliveries.GRA/

* Oil prices dipped, with the Brent benchmark staying around $80 per barrel as investors awaited this week's OPEC+ meeting and planned supply cuts through 2024.

* Lower oil prices make polyester, a substitute for cotton, less expensive. O/R

* "We continue to see that demand is not really supportive of prices moving higher," Thomen added.

* "There is some expectation that prices will rally and the reason being that we do have a supply side issue but the market hasn't come to terms with that because we haven't needed that much of cotton yet."

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly export sales report on Friday showed exports of 77,900 running bales (RB), at their lowest level in the 2023/2024 marketing year, down 31% from the previous week and 28% from the prior 4-week average. EXP/COT

Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber


Source: Reuters

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