NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Cotton prices slipped only marginally Friday as bullish
demand cues buttressed the market against widespread commodities and equities
losses.

Nearby cotton for July delivery settled ended 0.04 cent, or 0.05%, lower at
80.72 cents a pound. The contract settled gained 0.01 cent in the week.

Cotton prices are trading in a narrow 80-82-cent band as commercial traders,
such as fabric mills and merchants, cover short positions. While world textile
demand is expected to continue strong as the economy recovers, a large hunk of
cotton available in exchange stocks is capping prices.

Commodities and equities swooned Friday as traders moved out of riskier bets
and into the safe-haven dollar ahead of the weekend. Concerns lingered about
Europe's ability to stem sovereign-debt issues in Greece and keep them from
spreading to countries like Portugal and Spain. Nonetheless, cotton prices
withstood that pressure in the last two sessions.

"This was one of those weeks when cotton marched to its own drum," said Mike
Stevens, an independent cotton analyst and broker based in Mandeville, La.
"Despite a big drop in both stocks and the CRB Index and the multiple failed
attempts to get back above 82 cents, July finished the week basically
unchanged."

China issued an additional cotton-import quota for 2010 this week of 800,000
metric tons, subject to sliding tariffs ranging from 5%-40%, to meet strong
domestic demand, traders said. An earlier quota of 894,000 tons is subject to
an import tariff of 1%. However, traders there said the fresh quota was
unlikely to cool local prices as hoped because much of the fiber had already
been imported in anticipation of the announcement and held in warehouses.

Strong buying demand from China, the world's top importer and textile
producer, showed up in weekly export sales Thursday. To meet the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's seasonal target of 12 million bales of exports,
283,000 bales must be shipped each week through the end of the crop year on
July 31, said Sharon Johnson, senior cotton analyst at First Capitol Group in
Atlanta.

Cotton traders continue to watch demand cues available in weekly export-sales
data, as well as crop conditions for the fall harvest, reflected by the
December contract.

December cotton futures are trading at a discount to July contracts as next
year's crop is expected to come in stronger than the current season's supplies.
Traders continue to sell higher-priced July and buy December.

ICE daily cotton stocks increased by 457 500-pound bales Thursday to total
1.062 million, with 29,259 bales awaiting review and no decertification orders,
according to exchange data.

ICE cotton open interest--the number of active positions left at the end of
the session--increased by 904 positions Thursday to total 178,878, according to
the exchange.

Volume was estimated 9,520 lots. In options, approximately 1,243 calls and
1,663 puts traded on the floor, according to exchange data.

Close Change Range
Jly 80.72 -0.04 80.40-81.53
Oct 76.80 -0.34 76.75-77.65
Dec 77.47 -0.27 77.25-77.95