U.S. all-cotton export commitments stand at 49% of USDAΆs updated forecast. Mills priced 1,604 on-call lots in December. U.S. upland cotton under loan rose to 346,497 RB.
Cotton futures settled sharply higher Friday, bolstered by a five-week high in U.S. weekly export sales registrations reported by USDA.
Spot December settled up 126 points to 70.57 cents, in the upper quarter of its 143-point range from unchanged at 69.31 to 70.74 cents. For the week, December gained 359 points, its strongest weekly advance since July 15.
March gained 115 points to close at 70.89 cents, up 327 points for the week, and December 2017 advanced 97 points to settle at 70.74 cents, a weekly gain of 265 points.
Volume dipped to an estimated 27,932 lots from 29,574 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 13,464 lots or 46%, EFS 1,500 lots and EFP 28 lots. Options volume totaled 6,227 calls and 3,752 puts.
Net U.S. all-cotton export sales of 239,000 running bales during the week ended Oct. 6 for shipment this season, up from 182,500 RB the previous week, boosted 2016-17 commitments to 5.74 million RB.
Commitments totaled 49% of USDAΆs updated export forecast and widened the lead over cumulative sales a year ago by 168,000 RB to 2.259 million or to 65%. A year ago, commitments were 39% of final 2015-16 shipments.
All-cotton shipments of 161,200 RB, down from 219,600 RB the prior week, brought the total for the season to 1.804 million RB and still widened the lead over year-ago exports by 86,000 RB to 697,000 or to 63%. Shipments were 15% of the USDA forecast, compared with 12% of final 2015-16 exports at the corresponding point last season.
To achieve the USDA projection, shipments need to average roughly 228,700 RB per week, while sales averaging 137,200 RB would match the export forecast.
With no fresh sales reported for shipment next season, 2017-18 commitments of 428,000 RB remained 141,200 RB behind forward bookings a year ago.
Meanwhile, mills priced 1,604 on-call lots in December last week and producers priced 388 lots, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This reduced unpriced positions to 22,742 on the mill side and 12,011 on the producer side. The net call difference narrowed 1,216 lots to 10,731 lots (1.073 million bales), which was 6.95% of DecemberΆs declining open interest, compared with 7.54% a week earlier.
Mills added a net 3,031 lots across the board to boost their total unfixed position to 83,313, while producers added a net 97 lots to nudge theirs up to 25,058.
Separately, U.S. upland 2016-crop loans outstanding rose by 128,102 running bales to 346,497 RB during the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.
Entries were 154,387 RB and repayments were made on 26,285 RB. Upland cotton under loan included 4,589 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 341,908 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest dropped 635 lots Thursday to 240,938, with DecemberΆs down 935 lots to 146,332 and MarchΆs up 781 lots to 62,098. Cert stocks declined 2,014 bales to 29,155. There were 450 newly certified bales and 2,464 bales decertified. Cotton in deliverable position a year ago totaled 43,222 bales.
