Export commitments stand about 102% of the USDA estimate. Shipments are about 16% ahead of year-ago exports. U.S. upland growers have contracted 11% of their expected acreage.
Cotton futures traded in the red throughout the day and closed an inside-range, thinly traded session down 71 to 103 points Friday.
Most-active December settled off 71 points to 85.03 cents, in the lower half of its 111-point range from unchanged at 85.74 on the delayed opening to 84.63 cents. March lost the most, closing at 83.93 cents after trading from down 37 points at 84.59 to down 137 points at 83.59 cents.
Dollar index strength, seasonally slow export sales and shipments below the pace needed to reach the estimate may have weighed on sentiment. For the week, December gained 102 points and March rose 145 points.
Volume for the abbreviated session fell to a mere estimated 5,700 lots from 15,320 lots on Wednesday when spreads totaled 5,839 lots or 38% and EFP 62 lots. Options volume totaled 1,449 calls and 798 puts.
U.S. all-cotton 2012-13 export commitments edged up to 13.469 million running bales during the week ended June 27 on net sales of 37,400 bales, down from 67,600 bales the week before.
Commitments exceeded year-ago sales by 892,000 bales or about 7% and totaled about 102% of USDAΆs export forecast. A year ago, commitments were nearly 110% of final shipments.
All-cotton exports climbed to 12.013 million running bales on shipments of 201,700 bales, up from 149,300 bales the previous week. The total amounted to about 91% of the export forecast, roughly the same as the percentage of final shipments at the corresponding point last season.
Shipments are 1.62 million running bales or about 16% ahead of exports a year ago. To achieve the estimate, shipments now need to average approximately 294,800 running bales a week during the remaining four weeks of the season.
All-cotton commitments for 2013-14 reached 2.039 million running bales on net sales of 43,200 bales, against net cancellations of 6,900 bales the previous week.
The new-crop commitments trailed forward bookings a year ago by about 410,000 running bales and amounted to around 19% of the 2013-14 export forecast.
Meanwhile, U.S. upland growers had forward contracted about 11% of their expected acreage by July 1, up from 10% a year ago but down from 26% in 2011, according to updated USDA estimates.
The new estimates are based on the National Agricultural Statistics ServiceΆs June planted acreage report and informal surveys by the cotton division of the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Contracting totaled 32% in the Southeast, up from 13% a year ago; 15% in the Mid-South, down from 30% in 2012; 2% in the Southwest, down from 4%; and 3% in the West, down from also 4%.
These estimates donΆt include cotton consigned to marketing organizations but do include cotton contracted with those groups.
Futures open interest increased 364 lots Wednesday to 157,059, with JulyΆs down 145 lots to 891, DecemberΆs down 251 lots to 138,540 and MarchΆs up 266 lots to 11,370.
Certificated stocks declined 15,374 bales to 597,980. There were 11,470 newly certified bales, 26,844 bales decertified and 52,968 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index were unchanged Friday morning at 93 cents. For the week, the index gained 170 points.
