Mills added 1,309 lots to their unpriced on-call position in July. U.S. outstanding loans on 2015-crop upland cotton fell to 1.086 million bales. Slight rain chances forecast for the Lubbock area.
Cotton futures settled on slight gains beyond now matured May in lackluster activity Friday, confined in July and December within the prior dayΆs outside-ranges down.
July settled up four points to 61.83 cents, just below the midpoint of its 54-point range from up 41 points at 62.20 to down 13 points at 61.66 cents. It set its range for the day by 7:40 a.m. CDT, initially touching the high in the first 30 minutes of overnight trading and bumping against it several times during the morning.
December closed up 36 points to 61.37 cents, just above the midpoint of its also 54-point range from 61.01 to 61.55 cents. For the week, July lost 194 points and December shed 135 points.
July posted its first weekly loss since March 4, though gains for a couple of weeks in the streak were for only three and eight points.
The May contract expired at 61.63 cents, 20 points below July. It has drawn a total of 221 delivery notices or 22,100 bales and its open interest coming into FridayΆs session was 47 lots or 4,700 bales.
Volume slowed to an estimated 19,205 lots from 26,271 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 6,399 lots or 24%. Options volume totaled 2,620 calls and 2,683 puts.
Unpriced on-call positions based in July rose by 1,309 lots to 22,729 on the mill side and 86 lots to 4,018 on the producer side last week, according to the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.
The net call difference thus increased by 1,223 lots to 18,711, which was 16.49% of JulyΆs declining open interest, up from 15.35% a week earlier. The unfixed mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 5.66:1, against 5.45:1.
Elsewhere, mills added 1,095 lots and producers added 402 lots in December, raising their unfixed positions there to 13,058 and 11,057 lots, respectively. Mills also boosted their March on-call position by 1,129 lots to 8,526.
Separately, outstanding U.S. upland loans on 2015-crop cotton fell 34,188 running bales to 1.086 million RB during the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.
Repayments were made on 37,620 RB and entries were 3,432 RB. Upland cotton under loan included 172,966 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 912,739 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
On the weather scene, isolated to widely scattered severe thunderstorms are termed possible Saturday in portions of the Texas High Plains cotton area.
Rain chances in the Lubbock area are rated at 20% Saturday, rising to 30% Saturday night and Sunday. Winds may become sustained at more than 30 miles per hour Sunday afternoon, kicking up some blowing dust.
Futures open interest fell 1,058 lots Thursday to 189,671, with JulyΆs down 1,946 lots to 108,957 and DecemberΆs up 886 lots to 64,339. Total open interest fell 1,557 lots from a week earlier as prices declined.
Certificated stocks increased 4,537 bales from the prior day to 65,810, up 7,434 bales from a week ago. Awaiting review were 4,778 bales, including 955 bales at Dallas-Fort Worth and 3,823 bales at Memphis.
