December hit new high. Unpriced mill holdings in old-crop contracts declined 1,561 lots to a still-large 40,897 lots. U.S. outstanding upland loans fell to 1.225 million bales.
Old-crop cotton futures finished flat to slightly higher in old-crop contracts on a late rally Friday, while December posted a new high close for the move.
Spot May settled unchanged at 89.02 cents, rallying from a new month-plus low at 88.63 cents to the session high at 90.01 cents and settling in the lower third of the 138-point range.
Most-liquid July edged up 16 points to close at 90.45 cents, also around the lower third of its 128-point range from down 27 points at 90.02 cents — a 13-session low — to up 101 points at 91.30 cents.
December closed up 63 points to 81.47 cents, its highest finish since last June and the upper quarter of its 95-point range. For the week, May lost 338 points, July shed 222 points and December gained 155 points.
May, which had traded at premiums as wide as 221 points to July as recently as March 13, fell to a new low for the spread at a discount of 152 points and settled at a carry of 143 points.
Volume totaled an estimated 45,100 lots, down from a final 56,675 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 35,212 lots or 62% and EFP 123 lots. Options volume totaled 2,646 calls and 3,366 puts.
Unpriced on-call positions in old-crop contracts fell 1,561 lots to 40,897 on the mill side and 429 lots to 2,922 on the producer side last week, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The net call difference thus declined 1,132 lots to a still large 37,975 lots (3.798 million bales), which was 27.55% of the declining old-crop open interest, against 27.98% a week earlier. The ratio of the unfixed mill position to that of producers widened to 14:1 from 12.67:1.
Producers boosted their holdings in December by 413 lots to 19,019 and mills added 420 lots to hike theirs to 10,133. DecemberΆs open interest rose by 3,034 lots to 42,336 during the reporting week.
Separately, U.S. outstanding loans on upland cotton fell 73,808 running bales to 1.225 million during the week ended April 6, USDA said. Repayments were made on 74,125 bales and entries were 317 bales.
Upland loans outstanding included 88,292 bales of Form A issued to individual growers and 1.136 million bales of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest fell 1,320 lots Thursday to 182,293, with MayΆs down 11,498 lots to 48,990, JulyΆs up 8,119 lots to 80,649 and DecemberΆs up 1,917 lots to 47,693.
Certificated stocks continued to grow, rising 1,113 bales to 273,670. There were 1,159 newly certified bales, 46 bales decertified and 2,164 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index dropped 130 points Friday morning to 92.20 cents. The premium to ThursdayΆs May futures settlement widened 12 points to 3.18 cents.
The Forward A Index for 2014-15 gained 25 points to 89.10 cents as the premium for 2013-14 narrowed 155 points to 3.10 cents, down from 6.65 cents a week ago. For the week, the current-crop index lost 250 points and the new-crop index gained 105 points.
