June 4 (Reuters) - Cotton prices slipped on Tuesday as unfavorable planting weather for grains increased the likelihood of increased cotton planting, while U.S.-China trade talk concerns loomed.
* Cotton contracts for July settled down 0.45 cent, or 0.65%, at 68.97 cents per lb.
* It traded within a range of 68.48 and 69.91 cents a lb.
* “We do not have the issues in cotton that we have going on in grains with the flood in the Midwest,” said Sid Love, commodity trading adviser at Kansas-based Sid Love Consulting.
* “We are looking at more acres because we do not see the opportunity to plant grains in some places. People will go to cotton.”
* Heavy rain continued to plague U.S. farmers while forecasts looked grim, as they struggled to complete their sowings in waterlogged fields.
* Tuesday’s crop progress report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed cotton crop was 71% planted in the week to June 2, slightly below the four-year average of 72%, and considerably above the 57% planted in the week ending May 26.
* “We expect cotton prices to remain range-bound at 65-70 cents/lb during the next six months, in line with the forward curve,” research firm Societe Generale said in a note.
* “While U.S. weather is still a key driver of cotton prices, we expect the market to remain well supplied.”
* A long-drawn trade dispute between China and the United States still worried cotton participants, with U.S. farmers being among the hardest hit.
* “The market is still overly nervous about what’s going to happen with the trade talks,” Love said. “I think a trade deal is going to happen eventually - it is just a matter of time.”
* Total futures market volume fell by 12,341 to 41,321 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 3,186 to 213,387 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as of June 3 totaled 82,517 480-lb bales, down from 84,139 in the previous session. (Reporting by Karthika Namboothiri and Asha Sistla in Bengaluru Editing by Leslie Adler)
