March eked up 15 points for the month. U.S. export commitments reached 63% of the USDA projection for 2013-14 on slightly larger than expected weekly sales. China sold more cotton.
Cotton futures closed a post-holiday shortened session in the upper quarter of the dayΆs range at a four-week-plus high settlement Friday.
Most-active March gained 91 points to close at 79.35 cents, its highest finish since Oct. 30 and a couple of ticks above the prior-session intraday high. It ticked last at 78.55 after trading from down 44 points at 78 cents to up 118 points at 79.62 cents.
March advanced 212 points or 2.8% for the week, rising from a new seasonal low last Friday, and eked up 15 points or 0.2% for the month.
Maturing December settled up 139 points to 78.14 cents, a gain of 293 points or 3.9% for the week and 96 points or 1.3% for the month. It will go off the board next Friday.
Volume fell to an electronically estimated 12,100 lots from 18,994 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 6,265 lots or 33%, EFS 2,558 lots and EFP 50 lots.
Net U.S. all-cotton export sales slipped to 276,400 running bales for shipment this season during the week ended Nov. 21 from 331,300 bales the previous week, USDA reported.
Commitments climbed to 6.392 million RB, 63% of the USDA 2013-14 export estimate, compared with 59% of final 2012-13 shipments at the corresponding point last season. The bookings trailed cumulative sales a year ago by 1.119 million bales or about 15%.
Net upland sales slipped to 265,700 running bales from 305,100 RB on gross sales of 267,100 bales and cancellations of 2,100 bales. The net sales included 81,000 bales for Turkey, 46,600 for China, 30,900 for Vietnam, 26,000 for Mexico and 15,900 for Indonesia.
All-cotton shipments edged up to 117,700 running bales from 98,300 bales to bring exports for the season to 2.15 million RB, down about 12% from the total of 2.44 million RB a year ago.
Upland shipments rose to 96,300 bales from 71,100 bales and were primarily to China, 26,500 bales; Turkey, 14,600; Mexico, 12,500, Thailand, 8,200 and Indonesia, 8,100.
Cumulative all-cotton shipments were 21% of the USDA forecast, against 19% of final exports a year ago.
To achieve the USDA estimate, shipments need to average roughly 226,800 RB a week, while sales of approximately 105,600 RB would match the projection. Weekly sales were slightly larger than expected.
Meanwhile, China was reported to have sold about 59% of the cotton offered on the second day of the resumption of auctions from its reserves. The sales totaled 14,450 metric tons (66,368 bales of 480 pounds) from an offering of 24,466 tons (112,370 bales), sources said.
Futures open interest increased 425 lots on Wednesday to 157,015 despite losses of 94 lots to 526 in December and 363 lots to 112,462 in March.
Certificated stocks grew 1,279 bales to 237,285. Awaiting review were 5,410 bales for a possible total of 242,695 bales.
The Cotlook A Index of world values was steady Friday morning at 84.90 cents. This left the premium to WednesdayΆs March futures settlement unchanged at 6.46 cents. For the week, the index edged up 11 points.