Mills entered this week with unfixed on-call old-crop positions totaling 35,421 lots. Fire watch issued for Saturday on the Texas Plains. U.S. outstanding upland loans fell to 1.1 million running bales.
Cotton futures rallied from an early dip below prior-session lows to finish mostly little changed in thin trading Friday.
Benchmark July eked up five ticks to settle at 93.25 cents, in the upper reaches of its 122-point range from down 99 points at 92.21 to up 23 points at 93.43 cents. December eased six points to 82.71 cents, eight ticks off the high of its 84-point range from 82.79 to 81.95 cents.
Maturing May gained 29 points to 92.95 cents. For the week, May advanced 278 points, July gained 91 points and December rose 77 points.
Volume slowed to an electronically estimated 9,300 lots from a final 14,838 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 1,793 lots or 12% and EFP 25 lots.
On-call fixations by mills of 2,975 lots in the May contract last week left them with 6,238 lots to price prior to first notice day on Thursday, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Producers fixed 63 lots to cut their open on-call May positions to 429 lots.
In July, mills added 947 lots to raise their call holdings to 29,183 lots, while producers pared their position there by 129 lots to 2,007.
Combined old-crop positions declined 2,028 lots to 35,421 on the mill side and 192 lots to 2,436 on producer side. The net call difference narrowed 1,836 lots to 32,985, which was 28.47% of the declining open interest, little changed from a week earlier.
In December, producers boosted their unfixed holdings by 698 lots to 18,617 and mills added 60 lots to nudge theirs up to 10,734 lots. The net call difference of 7,883 lots was 14.98% of the rising open interest.
On the crop scene, rain chances look bleak for the next two weeks in the Lubbock area on the Texas High Plains. An earlier 10% chance for light showers on Saturday is no longer is in the local forecast.
A fire watch will be in effect for about 10 hours beginning at 12 p.m. CDT Saturday when breezy conditions, an afternoon high of 89 degrees and relative humidity of 15% or less are expected. Widespread blowing dust is expected Sunday and windy conditions again on Monday.
The traditional optimum High Plains cotton planting period opens May 5. The 10-day average minimum soil temperature has reached 63 degrees at the eight-inch depth at Lubbock, according to readings by Texas TechΆs West Texas Mesonet.
Meanwhile, U.S. outstanding loans on 2013-crop upland cotton fell 51,604 running bales to 1.101 million during the week Tuesday, according to USDA. Repayments were made on 51,849 bales and entries were 245 bales.
The loans outstanding included 78,023 bales of Form A issued to individual growers and 1,023,189 bales of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest grew 2,098 lots Thursday to 171,541, with MayΆs down 38 lots to 714, JulyΆs up 1,675 lots to 109,262 and DecemberΆs up 401 lots to 55,416. Certificated stocks grew 4,293 bales to 300,614. There were 16,386 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index gained 50 points Friday morning to 94.20 cents. The premium to ThursdayΆs July futures settlement narrowed six points to a cent.
The Forward A Index for 2014-15 also gained 50 points, rising to 90.90 cents. This left its discount to the 2013-14 index flat at 3.30 cents and widened the premium to ThursdayΆs December futures close by nine points to 8.13 cents.
