Mills priced 968 on-call lots in December last week. Wet weekend expected to keep High Plains harvest stalled. Upland outstanding loans rose to 1.453 million RB.
Cotton futures finished higher Friday, bouncing from a new intraday low since Oct. 12 after posting the session high overnight.
Spot December settled up 46 points to 68.53 cents, in the upper half of its 134-point range from up 97 points at 69.04 to down 37 points at 67.70 cents. For the week, it lost 229 points.
March closed down 42 points to 69.10 cents and December 2017 finished down nine points to 68.74 cents, posting weekly losses of 216 and 116 points, respectively.
Volume slowed to an estimated 26,689 lots from 35,737 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 20,266 lots or 57%, EFS 2,200 lots and EFP 243 lots. Options volume totaled 1,741 calls and 783 puts.
Mills priced 968 on-call lots in December last week and producers priced 601 lots, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This reduced unpriced positions to 19,726 on the mill side and 10,048 lots on the producer side, reflecting a net call difference of 9,678 lots, which was 7.12% of DecemberΆs declining open interest, compared with 6.97% a week earlier.
Mills had 1.96 lots to price prior to first notice day for December deliveries for every one by producers. First notice day was 17 trading sessions ahead on Nov. 23.
Across the board, mills added a net 1,513 lots to boost their unpriced position to 87,064 lots, while producers priced a net 468 lots to trim theirs to 23,632 lots.
On the weather scene, a wet weekend is in prospect for much of the Texas High and Rolling Plains, keeping cotton harvesters parked with chances for showers and thunderstorms forecast at 60% Saturday and 70% Sunday. Varying rainfall chances remain in the forecast through Thursday.
Widespread thunderstorms accompanying a cold front that moved into the area on Wednesday halted harvesting that had expanded under clear, warm conditions. Hail damaged cotton south of Lubbock in a region where local reports indicated 20% to 50% had been harvested.
Some gins werenΆt operating in northwestern counties because harvesting had only recently begun, according to USDA. Gins in the Abilene and San Angelo areas continued operating single shifts. Many producers waited for freezing temperatures to help with leaf drop.
Meanwhile, U.S. upland loans outstanding increased 451,498 running bales to 1,452,934 RB during the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.
Entries were 537,474 RB and repayments were made on 85,976 RB. Upland cotton under loan included 105,371 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 1,347,563 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest declined 5,526 lots Thursday to 250,020, with DecemberΆs down 7,190 lots to 115,194 and MarchΆs up 984 lots to 91,761. Cert stocks increased 1,002 bales to 39,557, up from 27,899 bales a week ago. There were 2,674 newly certified bales and 1,672 bales decertified.
