Cotton prices ticked higher Monday after market rumors that China was set to announce a policy change that would unleash more of its cotton stockpiles never surfaced.

Cotton for May delivery rose 0.5% to end at 57.38 cents a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange. A week ago, cotton prices touched an intraday low of 54.53 cents a pound on the rumors.

"This time of the year, typically it is when the rest of the world's cotton is being sold and our stuff is in storage waiting for them to run out and come buy ours," John Robinson, cotton marketing economist at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, said of U.S. cotton.

Mr. Robinson said July cotton isn't trading at enough of a premium to May cotton to warrant holding off on sales. The recent "meltdown" in cotton prices, he said, comes at a bad time for cotton producers whose crop insurance is priced according to market conditions in January and February.

Cotton prices are down 10% since the start of the year and producers in Texas, the largest growing state, have few better options other than to plant cotton.

In other markets, cocoa for May ended down 0.1% at $3,010 a ton, arabica coffee for May dropped 0.1% to close at $ 1.209 a pound, frozen concentrated orange juice futures for May fell 2% to close at $1.1805 a pound and May raw sugar fell 1.2% to close at 14.66 cents a pound.

Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com

Dow Jones Newswires