March regained precisely what it lost last week. Mills added 1,470 lots to their unpriced on-call position in 2016-17 marketing year contracts. U.S. Far East premium narrowed 20 points.

Cotton futures drifted lower in narrow consolidation Friday, trading below unchanged throughout the day and posting a small gain for the week.

Spot March closed down 63 points to 71.04 cents, near the low of its 79-point range from up two ticks at 71.69 to down 77 points to a four-session low at 70.90 cents. It hit the high in the first overnight minutes, touched the low twice on a 10-minute chart in morning trade and posted a 24-point weekly gain to reclaim precisely what it lost last week.

May closed down 60 points to 71.32 cents and December 2017 settled off 22 points to 69.50 cents — up 21 points and 15 points, respectively, for the week.

Volume edged up to an estimated 16,702 lots from 14,713 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 5,221 lots or 35% and EFP 44 lots. Options volume totaled 1,653 calls and 1,874 puts.

Mills added 1,470 on-call lots to their unpriced position in 2016-17 marketing year contracts last week and producers priced 1,830 lots, according to the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

This resulted in unpriced positions rising to 82,787 lots on the mill side and falling to 9,391 lots on the producer side, widening the net call difference by 3,300 lots to 73,396 lots (7.34 million bales).

The net difference was 31.8% of the declining open interest, compared with 30.04% a week earlier. The unpriced mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 8.82:1, up from 7.25:1 the week before.

In spot March, mills priced 203 lots and producers priced 1,618 lots, shaving the unfixed positions to 43,751 lots and 6,466 lots, respectively, and widening the net call difference by 1,415 lots to 37,285.

That difference amounted to 21.15% of MarchΆs open interest, and mills had 6.77 contracts to buy for every one that producers had to sell.

Mills added 1,186 lots in May, 487 lots in July, 2,104 lots in December 2017, 1,332 lots in March 2018 and 488 lots in May 2018. Producers added 25 lots in May, 104 lots in July and 287 lots in December 2017.

On competitive pricing, the average of the five lowest-quoted world growths for the Far East gained 70 points to 78.35 cents for the week ended Thursday, according to USDA, while the lowest-priced U.S. cotton of comparable quality landed there rose 50 points to 80.50 cents.

The U.S. premium thus narrowed 20 points to 2.15 cents. The adjusted world price for the program week that began Friday — reflecting transportation and quality differentials — is figured at 60.92 cents, leaving the corresponding marketing loan gain at zero.

The fine count adjustment for qualities better than 31-3-35 remains at 40 points. This is based on differences in premiums in U.S. and international markets.

Futures open interest increased 1,098 lots Thursday to 253,930, with MarchΆs up 83 lots to 178,070 and MayΆs up 570 lots to 41,015. Cert stocks dropped 511 bales to 77,265. There were 504 newly certified bales and 1,015 bales decertified. Awaiting review were 1,495 lots at Memphis.