Rapid movement of Hermine reported. ChinaΆs crop projected up slightly from the USDA forecast, while imports expected to remain low. Mills priced 1,167 December lots. Upland 2016-crop under loan rose to 68,464 RB.

Cotton futures settled mixed in subdued dealings Friday, down 50 to up seven points, with benchmark December finishing modestly lower after trading below unchanged throughout the day and most of the session.

December closed down 39 points to 67.79 cents, just above the midpoint of its 98-point range from up six points at 68.24 to down 92 points at 67.26 cents. For the week, it dropped 24 points.

Nearby October lost the most, settling at 67.51 cents, while March dipped eight points to 68.11 cents and December 2017 eased three points to 67.55 cents.

Rapid movement of Tropical Storm Hermine, which weakened from a Category 1 hurricane after making a Florida landfall, may help to limit its crop impact, some reports indicated. The Associated Press reported that GeorgiaΆs top emergency response official said Hermine was having less of an impact on the state than he had expected.

Volume slowed to an estimated 16,901 lots from 33,870 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 9,660 lots or 29%, EFP 25 lots and EFS 12 lots. Options volume totaled 2,542 calls and 2,261 puts.

A U.S. agricultural attach report has projected ChinaΆs 2016-17 cotton production at 21.13 million bales based on a decline in acreage despite a forecast yield gain in Xinjiang, the leading cotton area.

This is slightly higher than USDAΆs August forecast of 21 million bales but down from its 2015-16 estimate of 22 million bales.

The Foreign Agricultural Service report said imports are expected to remain low at 4.5 million bales, same as the USDA forecast. With China continuing to sell cotton from its state-owned reserves to meet domestic mill demand, itΆs unlikely to add new import quotas, the report said.

China early last month announced a one-month extension of the sales campaign through September and eliminated a cap on the volume at 2 million metric tons or 9.2 million 480-pound bales.

A leader in the Chinese textile industry expected the sales volume would reach 2.4 million tons or 11 million bales by Sept. 30, the FAS report from Beijing indicated.

Domestic mill use is projected by the post at 35.14 million bales, compared with USDAΆs forecast of 35 million, which is up a million bales from the official estimate for 2015-16. The higher FAS estimate is based mainly on a projected decline in yarn imports.

Lower yarn imports reflect a recovery in the competitiveness of ChinaΆs spinning sector as a result of the government policy to reduce the gap between domestic and global prices, the report said. Yarn imports during the first seven months of 2016 were down 19.4% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, mills priced 1,167 on-call lots in December last week to reduce their unfixed position there to 26,573 lots, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported.

With the unpriced producer position down 556 lots to 14,032, the net call difference dipped 611 lots to 12,541. This was 8.02% of the falling open interest, against 8.11% a week earlier. The unfixed mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 1.89:1, little changed from 1.9:1.

On the crop scene, U.S. upland loans outstanding increased 39,146 running bales during the week ended Monday to raise the seasonΆs total to 68,464 RB, according to the latest USDA figures. Entries for the week were 47,662 RB and repayments were made on 8,516 RB.

Futures open interest gained 683 lots Thursday to 228,643, with DecemberΆs up 489 lots to 154,460 and MarchΆs up 59 lots to 49,010. Cert stocks grew 366 bales to 42,158. There were 450 newly certified bales and 84 bales decertified.