Unpriced on-call mill positions based in May rose by 394 lots last week. U.S. outstanding upland loans on 2015-crop cotton dropped 13,221 bales. Cert stocks dropped 1,325 bales.
Cotton futures finished on a new rally high close in heavy dealings Friday, triggering buy stops along the way on follow-through momentum from the prior dayΆs bullish outside-range reversal.
Spot May settled up 76 points to 59.20 cents, near the high of its 124-point range from down 29 points at 58.15 to up 95 points at 59.39 cents. It took out chart resistance at 58.89 and finished on its highest close since Feb. 19.
July gained 53 points to settle at 58.84 cents and December rose 49 points to close at 58.26 cents.
For the week, the market gained 148 points in May as the inversion widened amid position-rolling, 126 points in July and 91 points in December.
Volume increased to an estimated 43,614 lots from 37,840 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 16,820 lots or 44%, EFS 42 lots and EFP 17 lots. Options volume totaled 4,308 calls and 4,835 puts.
Tight availability of higher quality cottons and wet conditions in the Delta, which if continued could restrain the intended big jump in the regionΆs plantings, were credited with lending support.
A source which had estimated U.S. all-cotton plantings at 8.8 million acres, up 2.6% from last yearΆs acreage, insisted that wet conditions could compromise the intended 11.4% growth to 9.6 million acres reported by USDA.
Analysts also noted that lower-yielding areas of Texas accounted for about 54% of the intended 925,000-acre expansion to 9.347 million in the upland planted area.
Meanwhile, unpriced on-call positions based in May rose by 394 lots to 12,742 on the mill side and fell 642 lots to 4,443 on the producer side last week, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The net call difference thus increased by 1,036 lots to 8,029, which was 7.27% of MayΆs declining open interest, up from 6.06% a week earlier. The unfixed mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 2.81:1, compared with 2.38:1 the prior week.
Fifteen trading sessions remained at the time prior to first notice day for May deliveries. Options in the May contract expire April 15.
Elsewhere, mills added 2,298 lots in July, 2,332 lots in December and 695 lots in March, while producers added 2,507 lots in July and 859 lots in December.
Separately, U.S. upland outstanding loans on 2015-crop cotton declined 13,221 running bales to 3.011 million RB last week, according to the latest USDA figures. Repayments were made on 22,634 RB and entries totaled 9,413 RB.
Upland cotton under loan included 247,307 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 2,764,059 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest increased 876 lots Thursday to 219,230, with MayΆs down 2,242 lots to 107,035 and JulyΆs up 1,738 lots to 57,055. Cert stocks dropped 1,325 bales to 45,712.
