June 18 (Reuters) - Cotton prices rose on Tuesday to hit a two-week high on renewed optimism that the trade dispute between the United States and China may be resolved as Washington said it would rekindle trade talks with China ahead of the Group of 20 summit.
* The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S., the
0.69%, to 66.88 cents per lb at 2:19 p.m. EDT (1819 GMT).
* It traded within a range of 65.82 and 67.94 cents a lb, its highest since June 4.
* U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday that the two countries would restart trade talks after a long gap amidst an ongoing trade dispute between U.S. and China.
* “The U.S. president is supposed to meet with China’s President Xi next week at the G20 summit and that is giving some optimism to the stock market and to other markets as well,” said Sid Love, commodity trading adviser at Kansas-based Sid Love Consulting.
* The United States is one of the world’s biggest exporters of cotton, while China is the largest consumer.
* Meanwhile, Monday’s crop progress report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed cotton crop was 89% planted in the week to June 16, more than the 75% reported for the previous week, however less that the five-year average of 94%.
* “We are in the middle of June and well past the ideal planting date for anything - whether it is corn, soybeans or cotton. We still have 11% left (in cotton) and that’s quite a lot,” Love added.
* “There’s more rain expected all the way across the country and for the next couple of weeks so there is still uncertainty.”
* Heavy rains have plagued U.S. farmers in cotton-producing states during the past few weeks.
* The USDA is expected to report its estimates for all cotton planted acres in the United States on June 28.
* Total futures market volume rose by 6,353 to 46,140 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 8,698 to 184,725 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks <CERT-COT-STX> deliverable as of June 17 totaled 95,526 480-lb bales, up from 93,721 in the previous session.
(Reporting by Asha Sistla in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
