Cotton futures were up anywhere from 24 to 234 points on Thursday, as July led the way. Cotton limits are back to 400 points, with the July contract back in the 80 cent level. The outside market factors were again not supportive, with crude oil 53 cents lower and the US dollar index 104 points higher.
Export Sales data showed an improvement of 29.71% on the week to 202,935 for old crop sales in the week of 5/16. China was the largest buyer of 104,400 RB, with Pakistan in for 42,000 RB. That was the second largest 23/24 total in the last 15 weeks. New crop sales were just 47,870 RB, a 3-week low. Export shipments were at a 3-week low at 204,053 RB.
CFTC’s Cotton On-Call report showed unfixed call sales for July down 2,283 contracts to 13,769 as of May 17. Overall unfixed call sales were down just 69 contracts to 50,908, on a build for December. As of unfixed call purchases, December was up 308 contracts to a large 40,663 contracts, as the total for all contracts sits at 77,879 contracts, up 555 in total.
The Seam reported 1,324 bales sold on the platform on May 22 at an average price of 84.17 cents/lb. ICE certified cotton stocks were down 44 bales on a mix of new certs and decerts on May 22 at 191,522 bales. The Cotlook A Index was unchanged again on May 22 at 85.60 cents/lb. The AWP for the next week was up 62 points to 60.08 cents/lb earlier today and is good through next Thursday.
Jul 24 Cotton closed at 81.72, up 234 points,
Dec 24 Cotton closed at 78.62, up 134 points,
Mar 25 Cotton closed at 80.03, up 120 points