Cotton Settles Modestly Lower Nearby

Traders awaited weekly export sales data. Marketing loan gain figured at 5.41 cents. About 29% of the upland crop ginned as of Nov. 1.

U.S. cotton futures traded on both sides of unchanged and finished with modest losses in nearby deliveries and slightly higher in deferred contracts Thursday.

December settled down 34 points to 61.84 cents, near the low of its 75-point range from up 38 points at 62.47 to down 37 points at 61.72 cents. It closed just below the low of the prior dayΆs inside-range session.

March finished down 24 points to 62.16 cents, trading within a 67-point band from 62.70 to 62.03 cents, while December 2016 edged up 15 points to settle at 63.40 cents.

Traders took note of losses in U.S. equities, a plunge in West Texas Intermediate crude oil to the lowest price since Aug. 27 and broad weakness in commodities amid global economic growth concerns.

Volume rose to an estimated 49,400 lots from 39,571 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 29,427 lots or 74%, EFP 142 lots and EFS 154 lots. Options volume totaled 4,008 calls and 2,237 puts.

Traders awaited the U.S. export sales-shipments report, set for release a day later than usual at 7:30 a.m. CST Friday. Some expectations for net upland sales for the week ended Nov. 5 range from 60,000 to 125,000 running bales, compared with 147,200 the previous week.

Net upland sales the last four reporting weeks have averaged 96,881 RB and upland shipments have averaged 90,064 RB. Upland shipments hit a marketing year high of 164,326 RB in the week ended Oct. 29.

The USDA this week left its 2015-16 export estimate unchanged on the month at 10.2 million statistical 480-pound bales, down from 11.25 million in 2014-15 and the smallest since 2000-01.

U.S. December futures settlements in the latest reporting week ranged from 63.32 to 61.94 cents and intraday prices from 63.44 to 61.76 cents.

On the competitive-pricing front, the average of the five lowest-quoted world growths for the Far East dropped 57 points to 66.34 cents during the week ended Thursday, according to USDA calculations, while the lowest-priced U.S. cotton landed there fell 65 points to 73 cents.

The U.S. premium thus narrowed eight points to 6.66 cents. The adjusted world price — reflecting transportation and quality differentials — for the week beginning Friday is 46.59 cents, down from 47.16 cents this week. This means a marketing loan gain of 5.41 cents, up from 4.84 cents.

On the crop scene, U.S. 2015-crop upland cotton ginned as of Nov. 1 totaled 3,604,950 running bales, compared with 4,693,550 a year ago, 2,906,750 in 2013 and 6,180,750 in 2012, USDA reported earlier this week.

Upland ginning amounted to about 29% of the November production estimate, compared with about 31% of the final 2014-15 output a year ago.

U.S. futures open interest increased 674 lots Wednesday to 193,127, with DecemberΆs down 7,749 lots to 53,860 and MarchΆs up 7,333 lots to 103,683. Cert stocks grew 1,240 bales to 47,081. Awaiting review were 9,415 bales.

World cotton futures, where trading began Nov. 2 alongside U.S. futures, settled off five points at 70.80 cents Thursday in the inaugural May 2016 contract, widening the spread over U.S. May futures by two points to 7.95 cents. Twenty-four lots traded. Open interest coming into the session was 192 lots. Trading volume the first week totaled 345 lots.