U.S. upland weekly classing increased to 1.296 million RB to boost the seasonΆs total to 9.573 million RB. Mills increased unpriced on-call position to a bulging board total of 93,668 lots.
Cotton futures bounced off a 10-session intraday low to finish marginally higher Friday, underpinned perhaps by a bulging unpriced mill on-call position.
Benchmark March settled up 14 points to 71.04 cents, just above the midpoint of its 180-point range from down 85 points at 70.05 to up 95 points at 71.85 cents. The rally off the lowest price since Nov. 17 stalled shy of ThursdayΆs high. For the week, March lost 21 points.
Maturing December closed up 18 points to 71.98 cents, May gained 19 points to 71.53 cents and December 2017 added 43 points to 69.93 cents.
Volume dipped to an estimated 21,229 lots from 23,250 lots the prior session when spreads accounted for 5,632 lots or 24% and EFP 72 lots. Options volume totaled 1,865 calls and 1,194 puts.
U.S. upland cotton classing increased to 1.296 million running bales during the week ended Thursday from 1.008 million the previous week, according to the latest USDA weekly figures.
The total for the season rose to 9.573 million RB, up 24% from 7.715 million RB classed as of Dec. 3 last year and about 63% of the U.S. 2016 upland production estimate based on conditions around Nov. 1.
Cotton meeting quality requirements for tendering on futures contracts totaled 72% for the week, up from 70.9% the previous week, and 71.4% for the season, up from 56.4% a year ago.
Classing of 48,487 RB of Pima, up from 41,746 the week before, boosted the extra-long staple total for the season to 281,892 RB, up from 233,405 graded last year.
All-cotton classing of 9.855 million RB of the 2016-crop was up from 7.979 million RB graded a year ago but down from 10.51 million RB through the corresponding period two years ago.
Meanwhile, mills added 4,860 on-call lots across the cotton futures board last week to raise their unpriced position to a bulging 93,668 lots, while producers priced 2,466 lots to trim theirs to 18,060 lots.
This resulted in the net call difference widening by 7,326 lots to 68,282, which was 29.81% of the rising open interest, according to the latest report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In March, mills added 6,620 lots and producers added 328 lots, lifting their respective unfixed positions to 42,429 lots and 4,475 lots and boosting the net call difference by 6,292 lots to 37,954, 20.76% of the contractΆs open interest.
Mills priced 5,157 lots in maturing December, leaving them with 313 unpriced lots there coming into this week, and producers priced 3,488 lots, leaving them with an unfixed 728 lots.
Elsewhere, mills added a total of 3,397 lots in May 2017 through July 2018, while producers added 694 lots from May 2017 through May 2018. In December 2017, mills added 855 lots and producers 345 lots.
Futures open interest fell 1,110 lots Thursday to 255,435, with DecemberΆs down 157 lots to 554, MarchΆs down 876 lots to 183,056 and MayΆs down 27 lots to 36,797. Certified stocks grew 2,533 bales to 56,231. There were 2,709 newly certified bales and 176 bales decertified.
