Mills priced 529 on-call July lots last week. Upland cotton under loan dipped 8,344 bales. U.S. premium narrowed to 1.58 cents in the Far East. Active gins fell to 560. Rain still expected on the High Plains.
Cotton futures finished a choppy, tight-range session mostly marginally lower Friday, touching new lows for the move but unable to generate much follow-through in either direction.
Spot July settled down 11 points to 60.62 cents, just below the midpoint of its tight 79-point range from up 31 points at 61.04 cents to down 48 points at 60.25 cents, a new low since April 18.
December closed down six points to 60.51 cents, in the middle of its 83-point range from up 36 points at 60.93 to down 47 points at 60.10 cents. For the week, July lost 121 points and December slipped 86 points.
Volume slowed to an estimated 21,075 lots from 28,145 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 11,636 lots or 41% and there was one lot of EFP. Options volume totaled 4,978 calls and 5,026 puts.
Mills priced 529 on-call lots and producers fixed 482 lots in July last week, according to the latest data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This reduced the unpriced positions to 22,200 lots on the mill side and 3,536 lots on the producer side, trimming the net call difference by 47 lots to 18,664, which was 17.4% of JulyΆs declining open interest.
The unfixed mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 6.28:1, compared with 5.66:1 a week earlier. In the December contract, mills added 644 lots and producers added 422 lots, raising their unpriced positions there to 13,704 lots and 11,497 lots, respectively.
Separately, U.S. outstanding loans on 2015-crop upland cotton dipped 8,344 running bales to 1.077 million during the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.
Repayments were made on 11,379 RB and entries totaled 3,035 RB. Upland cotton under loan included 164,597 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 912,764 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
On the competitive-pricing scene, the average of the five lowest-quoted world growths for the Far East fell 173 points to 67.92 cents during the week ended Thursday, according to USDA calculations, while the lowest-priced U.S. cotton landed there dropped 213 points to 69.50 cents.
The U.S. premium thus narrowed 40 points to 1.58 cents. The adjusted world price for the week ending next Thursday, reflecting transportation and quality differentials, is figured at 50.19 cents, resulting in a marketing loan gain of 1.81 cents.
In its final 2015-crop ginning report earlier this week, USDAΆs National Agricultural Statistics Service said active cotton gins fell to 560 from 601 the prior year. Fifty-two percent processed more than 20,000 running bales, compared with 53% the previous season.
The final tally on running bales was 12,528,950, down from 15,875,650 in 2014-15. Bale weights averaged 492.9 pounds, compared with 492.6 pounds the year before and 493.4 pounds two years ago.
On the weather scene, forecasters now rate chances for showers and thunderstorms in the Lubbock area of the Texas High Plains at 50% Friday night and 50% again Saturday and Sunday. Some storms could become severe with hail up to the size of golf balls and winds up to 60 miles per hour.
Futures open interest increased 2,582 lots Thursday to 189,699, with JulyΆs up 576 bales to 100,847 and DecemberΆs up 2,051 lots to 72,405. This was JulyΆs first OI increase since May 2 when it was 114,570 lots.
Certificated stocks grew 1,231 bales to 74,625, up from 65,810 bales a week ago. Awaiting review were 5,907 bales at Memphis.
