December closed down 12.8% from its October high. Cotton classing totaled 2.5 million running bales for the season. Heavy rains interrupted Delta harvest.
Cotton futures, stuck in a steep downtrend, extended a losing streak to 11 sessions in a row and four consecutive weeks Friday.
Spot December closed off 60 points to 76.58 cents, just off the low of its 109-point range from up 45 points to 77.63 cents to down 64 points to 76.54 cents. March settled down 50 points to 78.70 cents.
For the week, December fell 250 points and March dropped 189 points. December closed down 11.20 cents or 12.8% from its October high.
Volume slipped to an estimated 25,900 lots from 39,513 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 20,070 lots or 51%, EFP 1,856 lots and EFS 310 lots. Options volume increased to 7,100 lots — 3,294 calls and 3,806 puts.
U.S. all-cotton classing rose to 913,777 running bales during the week ended Thursday from 646,979 bales the previous week and brought the seasonΆs total to 2,530,825 bales.
The total for the season was about 20% of USDAΆs September crop estimate in running bales and was down from 5,926,954 bales classed through the corresponding period last season.
Upland classing of 862,640 bales, up from 609,468 bales the week before, boosted the seasonΆs total of that cotton to 2,421,771 bales, down from 5,818,492 bales a year ago.
Cotton tenderable on futures contracts amounted to 62.6% for the week and 59.3% for the season, compared with 58.9% and 52.2%, respectively, a year ago.
A cold front brought heavy rains to much of the Delta this week. Harvesting had made good progress ahead of the front in North Delta and was rapidly winding down in the South Delta cotton areas of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Ginning continued with few interruptions throughout the North Delta and slowed in Louisiana as smaller gins completed operations for the season. Producers and merchants were fairly pleased with staple length and strength but expressed some concern about the amount of leaf in the North Delta and higher mikes in the South Delta.
Futures open interest expanded 1,263 lots Thursday, with DecemberΆs down 3,558 lots to 96,779 and MarchΆs up 3,734 lots to 75,635. March may claim the top spot in open interest next week.
Certificated stocks grew 3,444 bales to 149,793, up from 110,203 bales a week ago. Awaiting review were 36,795 bales, including 7,576 bales at Galveston, 9,246 bales at Greenville and 19,973 bales at Memphis.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index fell 50 points Friday morning to 84.90 cents. The premium to ThursdayΆs December futures settlement widened 16 points to 7.72 cents.
