May lost 1.8% for the month. U.S. all-cotton prospective plantings estimated at 13.469 million acres, up 6.8% from last year. The acreage would be the largest since 2011 when abandonment soared.
Cotton futures finished higher on this last trading day of the week and month after the U.S. all-cotton prospective came in within the range of trade expectations.
May settled up 72 points to 81.46 cents, in the middle of its 152-point range from down six points at 80.68, to up 146 points at 82.20 cents. It eased 37 points for the week and 147 points or 1.8% for the month.
July gained 62 points to close at 81.80 cents, trading within a 143-point range from 81.08 to 82.51 cents. December closed up 74 points to 77.73 cents, reversing off its lowest intraday price since March 2 at 76.90 to settle five ticks off the high of its 88-point trading band.
The market will be closed Friday for Good Friday and will reopen at 8 p.m. CST on Sunday.
Volume increased to an estimated 36,200 lots from 33,307 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 3,575 lots or 41%, EFP 264 lots and EFS nine lots. Options volume rose to 8,957 lots (3,500 calls and 5,457 puts) from 8,631 lots (3,413 calls and 5,218 puts).
All-cotton prospective plantings are estimated at 13.469 million acres, up 6.8% from last year’s 12.612 million acres, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reported.
Trade estimates had averaged 13.292 million acres within a range from 13.0 million to 13.6 million, compared with a preliminary 13.3 million acres forecast by USDA at its Outlook Forum in February and 13.078 million acres foreseen in an early National Cotton Council survey.
If realized, the prospective acreage would be the largest since 2011. Plantings that year totaled 14.735 million acres, but abandonment soared to 5.274 million acres or 36% as record drought gripped Texas. The Lone Star state is expected to account for 55.3% of the U.S. 2018 upland area.
Upland plantings are estimated at 13.207 million acres, up 6.9% from 12.36 million last year, and the Pima or extra-long-staple area at 262,000 acres, up 4.2% from 251,500 acres.
Strong cotton prices, compared with competing crops, and changes to the 2014 farm bill beginning with the 2018 crop, are driving the acreage increase throughout the Cotton Belt.
Growers expect to increase cotton acreage in all states except in Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia. Plantings are expected to be a record high in Kansas of 130,000 acres and the highest in Oklahoma since 1961 at 285,000 acres.
Producers in both Texas and Georgia expect to plant the largest cotton acreage since 2011 at 7.3 million acres and 1.45 million acres, respectively, up 5.8% from 6.9 million in the former and 13.3% from 1.28 million in the latter. Georgia is the second largest cotton state.
Distribution of the prospective acreage among lower and higher yielding regions may have been viewed initially as market friendly. Beneficial rains fell this week after a long dry spell in the semi-arid Texas High Plains, but much more is needed prior to planting.
By regions, producers reported upland intentions of 2.845 million acres in the Southeast, up 12.8%; 1.935 million in the mid-South, down 0.5%; 8.11 million in the Southwest, up 7%; and 317,000 in the West, up 1%.
Constructive U.S. 2017-18 all-cotton weekly export sales of 309,500 running bales and shipments of 453,200 RB — above the average needed to reach the USDA estimate — offered support, as did stock market gains.
Futures open interest grew 903 lots to 279,189 on Wednesday, with May’s down 812 lots to 112,279, July’s up 759 lots to 73,521 and December’s up 157 lots to 73,459. Certified stocks were unchanged at 60,218 bales.
