Winter storm interrupted mill operations. Merchants offered forward contracts in the Delta but no bookings reported. Official planting dates opened in Rio Grande Valley. Intentions remained uncertain in the SJV.
Cotton futures settled on the plus side Tuesday, with most-active May finishing on a new high close for the move for the second-month contract.
May gained 44 points to close at 89.48 cents, near the high of its 96-point range from up 59 points at 89.63 to down 37 points at 88.67 cents. MayΆs high was within four ticks of last weekΆs intraday high, which was its highest since April 2012.
The March contract closed up 36 points to 87.91 cents, in the upper half of its 94-point range from 88.24 to 87.30 cents, while July gained 42 points to 89 cents and December rose 38 points to 78.06 cents.
Electronically estimated volume totaled 26,600 lots, against a cleared 45,755 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 27,210 lots or 59%, EFP 7,754 lots and EFS 570 lots.
Several cotton offices were closed and industry meetings canceled by a severe winter storm in the Southeast last week, according to a review by the cotton division of USDAΆs Agricultural Marketing Service.
The storm laid a swath of freezing rain, sleet and snow from North Alabama to Virginia. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power. Operating schedules at some textile mills were interrupted. Some gins waited for the last modules to accumulate before completing operations for the season.
A wintry mix of freezing rain and snow brought precipitation accumulations totaling less than half an inch in the North Delta. Merchants offered contracts at 300 points off December futures, but no forward bookings were reported.
Official cotton planting dates opened Feb. 1 in TexasΆ Rio Grande Valley and Feb. 15 in the Coastal Bend, but most producers prefer to wait until March 1 for milder weather to start strewing seeds.
Some ginning continued in Kansas and Oklahoma, and more gins completed operations in the West Texas Plains and submitted samples for classification.
Ginning also continued in the Desert Southwest even as planters continued to roll around Yuma, Ariz. Producers were reported willing to contract upland cotton if December futures were to reach 80 cents.
Approximately three-quarters of an inch of rain fell early in the reporting week in Fresno and Madera counties in CaliforniaΆs San Joaquin Valley.
Producers remained uncertain of planting intentions because of a lack of winter moisture and mountain snowpack. Water allocations for agriculture remained at zero.
Futures open interest fell 7,346 lots Friday to 173,729, with MarchΆs down 13,810 lots to 19,847 and MayΆs up 5,243 lots to 98,881. Cert stocks grew a total of 1,768 bales to 250,605.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index were unchanged Tuesday morning at 95.35 cents, leaving the premium to FridayΆs May futures settlement at 6.31 cents.
