U.S. export commitments remained about 94% of the USDA estimate and shipments reached 77%. World cotton futures contract set for fourth quarter launch.
Cotton futures finished mostly little changed Thursday after slipping below previous-session lows in light, tight-range trading.
Benchmark July settled off nine points to 94.20 cents, just above the midpoint of its 78-point range from down 54 points at 93.75 to up 24 points at 94.53 cents.
December eased off two ticks to close at 83.38 cents, also just above the midpoint of its 51-point span from up 15 points at 83.55 to down 36 points at 83.04 cents.
Volume slowed to an electronically estimated 9,400 lots from a final 17,154 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 5,780 lots or 34% and EFP 11 lots.
Net U.S. all-cotton export sales for shipment this season of 37,600 running bales during the week ended April 24, down from 132,300 RB the previous week, boosted commitments to 9.807 million RB.
Upland sales fell to 31,400 RB from 124,100 the week before and were below trade expectations of mostly 50,000 to 75,000 RB. Talk has circulated that cancellations in next weekΆs report may exceed sales.
Commitments remained about 94% of the USDA estimate, compared with over 99% of final exports at the correspondent point last season. The gap behind commitments a year ago widened to 2.769 million RB or about 22%.
All-cotton shipments of 228,400 RB, against 237,500 the previous week, boosted the total for the season to 7.965 million RB, 1.724 million RB or about 18% behind year-ago exports.
Shipments were about 77% of the USDA forecast, about the same as the percentage of final exports a year ago. To achieve the estimate, shipments need to average roughly 185,700 RB a week, while sales averaging around 44,000 RB would match the forecast.
Meanwhile, the IntercontinentalExchange plans to launch its new world cotton futures contract in the fourth quarter this year, later than previously scheduled, according to reports at the annual American Cotton Shippers Association meeting in Miami.
The contract will include cotton grown in the United States, Australia, Brazil, India, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Mali. More origins could be added in the future. The global contract will trade alongside ICEΆs U.S.-based No. 2 cotton futures contract.
Delivery points are in Malaysia, the United States and Australia, with discounts for the latter two. There will be physical delivery in U.S. cents per pound and the same delivery months as the U.S. contract.
The Atlanta-based exchange previously had planned to list the world contract early this year. The International Cotton Association and ACSA are working together on the contract, an exchange official said.
Futures open interest again expanded Wednesday, rising 4,767 lots to 184,891, with MayΆs down 41 lots to 564, JulyΆs up 3,499 lots to 118,644 and DecemberΆs up 1,166 lots to 59,130. Certificated stocks grew 65,783 bales to 322,315. Awaiting review were 6,783 bales.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index rose 20 points Thursday morning to 95.30 cents. The premium to WednesdayΆs July futures settlement narrowed three points to 1.01 cents.
The Forward A Index for 2014-15 was unchanged at 91.75 cents, widening the discount to the 2013-14 index by 20 points to 3.55 cents and the premium to WednesdayΆs December futures close by two points to 8.35 cents.
