July 16 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell over 1% on Tuesday, on good crop conditions and planting progress in major growing regions in the United States, while a robust dollar kept the natural fiber close to three-year lows touched last week.
* The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S., the
second-month December contract settled down 0.89
cent, or 1.39%, at 63.06 cents per lb.
* It traded within a range of 62.84 and 63.95 cents a lb.
* “The (weather) conditions are very good for growing cotton all across the country,” said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi, adding that prices were also pressured by a strong dollar.
* The dollar index was up 0.5% on Tuesday on better than expected U.S. retail sales data. A stronger greenback makes commodities priced in dollars, such as cotton, more expensive for holders of other currencies.
* Meanwhile, the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) released the crop progress data on Monday that showed cotton plant progress at 56%, which was far higher than the progress a year ago at 41%.
* “The number one issue for cotton is world demand is terrible. It is just a horrible situation - no export demand, we have got a lot of cotton in the world, it is going down pretty hard for weeks now,” said John Bondurant, a trader in Memphis, Tennessee.
* Lack of domestic demand as well as a long-drawn out trade war between the United States and China has pushed cotton prices down over 14% so far this year.
* President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States still has a long way to go to conclude a trade deal with China but could impose tariffs on an additional $325 billion worth of Chinese goods if it needed to do so.
* Total futures market volume fell by 1,349 to 16,513 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 108 to 190,313 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks <CERT-COT-STX> deliverable as of July 15 totaled 60,410 480-lb bales, down from 63,125 in the previous session.
(Reporting by Asha Sistla in Bengaluru Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
