Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Cotton futures fell as crop concerns eased on forecasts for favorable weather after storms this week in the U.S., the worldΆs top exporter.
The main cotton-growing areas in central Georgia, the Carolinas and the interior of Alabama got less rain than expected, limiting prospects for erosion of the crop quality, said Drew Lerner, the president of World Weather Inc. in Overland Park, Kansas. The weather will turn drier from tomorrow through next week, quickening the harvest, said Kyle Tapley, a meteorologist at MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
“The worry about yield damage has been lessened a bit,” Michael Smith, the president of T&K Futures & Options Inc. in Port St. Lucie, Florida, said in a telephone interview. “The global oversupply of cotton doesnΆt look like itΆs going to end.”
Cotton for March delivery fell 0.9 percent to settle at 78.44 cents a pound at 2:30 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The price gained 2.5 percent in the previous two days.
World WeatherΆs Lerner and MDAΆs Tapley spoke in telephone interviews.
Tomorrow, China will sell from government inventories some cotton purchased in 2011, the industry website cncotton.com said yesterday.
The sale will reduce demand from domestic mills for imports, Jack Scoville, a vice president at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.