U.S. upland crop 69% classed. Harvest focused on dryland cotton in the Texas Plains. Widespread rains fell in drought areas of the Southeast and Delta. Ginning continued in the Far West.
Cotton futures settled 25 to 89 points higher in traded contracts Monday, led by spot March on an inside-day trading range and a 10-session high finish.
March closed up 89 points to 71.69 cents, near the high of its 113-point range from down 15 points at 70.65 to up 98 points at 71.78 cents. It regained more than what it lost on Friday and finished on its highest close since Nov. 28 when it settled at 72.02 cents.
The May contract finished up 79 points to 71.90 cents, while December 2017 edged up 25 points to settle at 69.60 cents.
Volume crept up to an estimated 22,456 lots from 21,759 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 32% and EFS 55 lots. Options volume totaled 4,756 calls and 3,721 puts.
U.S. upland cotton classing dipped to 1.136 million running bales during the week ended Thursday from 1.296 million the previous week to bring the total for the season to 10.708 million RB, up 23% from the 8.694 million graded through the corresponding period last year.
The latest USDA figures indicated 69% of the December upland crop forecast has been classed, 71.5% of which met requirements for tendering on futures contracts. Tenderable cotton a year ago totaled 56.1%.
Pima classing of 37,148 RB, down from 48,487 the previous week, brought the extra-long staple cotton seasonΆs total to 319,037 million, up from 299,437 a year ago. The all-cotton total was 11.027 million RB, compared with 8.994 million last year.
Some counties in the West Texas Plains, where the bulk of the crop still on the stalk is located, were reported 90% harvested and others were closer to 70% completed.
Most irrigated cotton has been harvested and the focus remained on dryland fields, USDAΆs Agricultural Marketing Service reported Friday in a weekly review.
Ginning continued to make good progress on backlogged modules. Haulers were busy moving modules from fields to gin yards. The industry was encouraged by high yields and exceptional crop quality. Minimal leaf issues were reported from dryland fields that had experienced regrowth.
Eastern and southern Texas received 4 to 6 inches of welcomed rainfall. Harvesting was complete. A few gins continued operating in the Winter Garden and Blackland Prairies but most had completed operations.
Widespread storms brought moderate to heavy showers in the entire Southeast. Rainfall totals measured 2 to 3 inches across Central Alabama and Georgia, with lesser amounts of around one-half inch to an inch along the Gulf Coast, the Carolinas and Virginia.
The wet weather helped alleviate droughty conditions throughout the lower Southeast. The last remaining fields were being harvested and gins continued to process backloads of modules.
Up to 3 inches of much-needed rain fell throughout the North Delta. Drought-stricken areas of the Mid-South showed a one-category improvement. A large part of Tennessee remained classified as either in severe to extreme drought, but only a small area in southeastern Arkansas still was rated severe and the cotton area of Missouri was described as moderate.
At least 3 inches of rain fell throughout the South Delta and isolated areas got around 10 inches. Ginning was virtually over in Louisiana and was rapidly nearing a close in Mississippi and the North Delta.
Gins continued operating in the Desert Southwest and the San Joaquin Valley of California.
Futures open interest declined 945 lots Friday to 250,030, with MarchΆs down 1,170 lots to 176,304 and MayΆs up 425 to 40.057. Cert stocks grew 13,847 bales to 74,540. There were 13,955 newly certified bales and 108 bales decertified. Awaiting review were 4,737 bales at Greenville, S.C.
