Light mill and producer on-call activity about evenly balanced in July, according to latest CFTC data. Temperature expected to reach 100 degrees at Lubbock with no rain in sight. U.S. outstanding loans declined to 1.65 million running bales.
Range-bound cotton futures finished higher for the day and about flat for the week Friday as volume improved but remained light.
Spot July gained 38 points to settle at 86.41 cents, just off the high of its 96-point trading span from down 49 points at 85.54 to up 47 points at 86.50 cents.
December closed up 57 points to 85.90 cents, seven ticks off the high of its 116-point range from down 52 points at 84.81 to up 64 points at 85.97 cents. For the week, July dipped seven points and December gained eight points.
Volume totaled an estimated 16,670 lots, against only 11,082 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 3,377 lots or 31% and EFP 269 lots. Options volume totaled 8,489 calls and 10,231 puts.
Mills and producers added a light 278 lots and 211 lots, respectively, to their unfixed on-call positions in July last week, according to the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.
The unfixed positions edged up to 17,065 lots on the mill side and 4,181 lots on the producer side, a ratio of 4.18:1. The net call difference nudged up 67 lots to 12,884, which was 10.7% of the rising July open interest, down from 11.47% a week earlier.
In December, mills hiked their unfixed position by 180 lots to 22,280 and producers added just two lots to put theirs at 12,230, leaving a little changed ratio on non-priced holdings of 1.82:1. The net call difference of 10,050 lots amounted to 17.33% of DecemberΆs open interest, down from 18.47%.
On the crop scene, little to no rain is in sight for most of the Texas High Plains cotton area and temperatures today are expected to reach a hot 100 degrees at Lubbock, taking a toll on meager soil moisture.
Lubbock has received only 0.39 of an inch of precipitation since March 1, compared with a normal of 3.48 inches, and has measured 0.35-inch thus far this month, down from 1.27 inches a year ago.
No rain is in the seven-day forecast at Lubbock, and some private forecasters say thereΆs little chance for significant rainfall in the main cotton area through the next two weeks. The regionΆs first of variable cotton insurance planting deadlines is May 31 northwest of Lubbock.
Meanwhile, repayments on 93,897 bales and no entries reduced U.S. 2012-crop all-cotton outstanding loans to 1,649,800 running bales during the week ended May 14, USDA reported.
Loans outstanding included 165,384 bales of Form A issued to individual growers, down 8,653 bales on the week, and 1,484,416 bales of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents, down 85,244 bales. Outstanding loans of upland only declined 77,923 bales to 1,487,475.
Futures open interest gained 995 lots Thursday to 185,465, with JulyΆs up 234 lots to 122,736 and DecemberΆs up 722 lots to 59,240. Open interest expanded 17,804 lots from a week ago.
Certificated stocks declined 509,145 bales, still up from 497,739 bales a week earlier. There were 1,565 newly certified bales, 2,324 bales decertified and 2,640 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index dipped 10 points Friday morning to 93.40 cents. The Index premium to ThursdayΆs July futures settlement widened 32 points to 7.37 cents.