Cotton futures traded slightly lower Thursday amid light profit-taking after three up days in a row and an advance of 10.4% from the Nov. 9 low, basis March.
Spot March hovered off 14 points to 76.92 cents at 8 a.m. CST, having opened flat and traded within a mere 39-point range between 76.70 and 77.09 cents on a contract volume of 1,232 lots.
U.S. weekly cotton export sales data, usually released on Thursdays, has been delayed until Friday by the Christmas holiday.
Traders will watch for signs of whether recent strong demand has continued or subsided at rising prices. The report will be for the week ended Dec. 20 when daily closing March prices ranged from 75.09 to 75.95 cents.
In the news, the number of new U.S. unemployment claims fell last week, Dow Jones Newswires reported, suggesting a slight improvement to the labor market.
Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 in the week ended Dec. 22, the Labor Department said. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected that claims would go up to 365,000. The four-week moving average of claims decreased 11,250 to 356,750.
In outside markets, Dow Jones futures traded up 15 points and S&P futures up 2.25, while dollar index futures fell 0.244 to 79.460, crude oil gained 43 cents to $91.41, Brent crude dipped 8 cents to $110.99 and gold dropped $4.80 to $1,655.10.
ChinaΆs Zhengzhou cotton futures settled mixed, with January up 35 yuan or 0.18% and most-active May down 10 yuan or 0.05%.
In the U.S. market Wednesday, March settled at its highest close since Sept. 7, up 727 points from its early November low, and the highest spot futures settlement since Oct. 18.
The March-May spread traded between premiums on May of 57 and 51 points and narrowed five points to close at 52 points on a volume of 464 lots. May-July traded between premiums on July of 58 and 48 points and narrowed two points to close at 53 on a volume of 377 lots, while July cut its settlement discount to December by 36 points to 90.
In cash trading, grower-to-business sales increased to 14,362 bales on The Seam from 5,193 bales the previous session. Prices fell to an average of 69.85 cents from 70.61 cents as premiums over loan repayment rates eased seven points to 17.04 cents.
Business-to-business sales rose to 1,016 bales from 596 bales on prices averaging 72.57 cents, down from 75.17 cents, and premiums of 18.31 cents, down from 19.22 cents.
The grower sales included 9,114 bales of staples 35 or more and 5,248 bales of staples 34 or less, while the business sales included 859 and 157 bales, respectively.
Growers sold 937 bales from the Southeast and 13,425 bales from the Southwest. All the business sales were from the Southwest.