U.S. upland classing reached 9.935 million running bales for the season, down 29% from a year ago. Tenderable cotton totaled 63%, up from 58.3% a year ago.
Cotton futures finished at a nine-session low close Monday, trimming a steep loss to settle midrange below last weekΆs low.
Spot March shed 91 points to close at 82.24 cents, trading within a 164-point range from down nine points 83.06 to down 173 points at 81.42 cents. It closed below lows of the prior six sessions at its lowest finish since Dec. 10.
The May contract closed off 77 points at 82.14 cents, July dropped 71 points to 82.18 cents and December slipped 25 points to 76.71 cents.
Volume totaled an estimated 13,500 lots, compared with 13,492 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 5,202 lots or 39% and EFP 576 lots. Options volume totaled 1,421 calls and 1,845 puts.
The market will close early at noon CST on Tuesday, remain closed Wednesday in observance of Christmas and reopen at 7 a.m. CST on Thursday.
U.S. upland classing slowed to 792,781 running bales during the week ended Dec. 19 to bring the total for the season to 9.935 million, USDA figures showed, down 29% from the 13.998 million graded a year ago.
Cotton tenderable on futures contracts totaled 62% for the week and 63% for the season. A year ago, 58.3% of the cotton graded for the season met tenderable requirements.
All-cotton classing of 828,283 bales for the week boosted the total for the season to 10.414 million bales, down from 14.526 million bales graded a year ago.
Harvesting neared completion throughout the Southeast in fields dry enough to pick, the cotton division of USDAΆs Agricultural Marketing Service said in a weekly review.
Ginning was winding down in many areas, with several gins having finished for the season in the Carolinas, while operations continued in South Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Some gins planned additional downtime for the Christmas and New Year holidays to allow time for modules to accumulate on gin yards.
In the North Delta, ginning continued on a limited basis as ginners worked through a backlog of modules. The Memphis classing office reduced operations to a single daytime shift.
In the West Texas Plains, some gins finished operations for the season in the Lamesa and Lubbock classing territories. Classing was around 90% completed at Lamesa, about 85% at Lubbock and about 67% at Abilene where Rolling Plains harvesting and ginning werenΆt as far along.
Harvesting and ginning continued under unseasonably warm weather for this time of year in the Desert Southwest. Water availability and the outlook for 2014 remained a concern.
One saw-gin continued to operate in the San Joaquin Valley and a couple of roller gins planned on completing their seasons this week. Water availability and the 2014 outlook also remained a concern there.
Futures open interest gained 267 lots Friday to 167,999, with MarchΆs down 304 lots to 111,435 and MayΆs up 303 lots to 32,126. Certificated stocks declined 604 bales to 39,670.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index dipped 10 points Monday morning to 88.25 cents. The premium to FridayΆs March futures settlement widened eight points to 5.10 cents.
