U.S. all-cotton export commitments edged up to almost 90% of USDAΆs shipments forecast even after the slowest weekly sales of the marketing year. Shipments reached 53% of the estimate.
Cotton futures extended an overnight rally from a new low for the move to close strongly ahead Thursday in the face of the slowest U.S. weekly export sales of the marketing year.
Most-active May closed up 144 points to 87.81 cents, snapping a two-day losing string. It settled in the upper quarter of its 206-point range from down 25 points at 86.12 to up 181 points at 88.18 cents.
Maturing March finished up 154 points to 86.91 cents, July advanced 132 points to 87.27 cents and December rose 107 points to 77.84 cents.
Volume slid to an estimated 17,500 lots from 20,789 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 4,176 lots or 20%, EFS 3,761 lots and EFP 32 lots. Options volume totaled 2,015 calls and 2,501 puts.
Net U.S. all-cotton export sales for shipment this season fell to 42,000 running bales during the week ended Feb. 20 from 78,200 bales the previous week. Upland net sales of 27,100 RB reflected gross sales of 86,800 bales and cancellations of 59,800 RB, including 22,600 by China.
Bolstered by earlier robust sales, commitments edged up to 9.12 million RB, almost 90% of the USDA export estimate, against 85% of final shipments at the corresponding point last season. Commitments trailed year-ago bookings by 1.624 million RB or by about 15%.
Leading buyers for the week included Japan, Mexico, Peru, Taiwan, Pakistan and Thailand, with cancellations also reported from Turkey and South Korea.
All-cotton shipments fell to 288,600 running bales from 344,000 the prior week but remained above the weekly average needed to reach the USDA forecast. The primary destinations included Turkey, China, Vietnam, Mexico and Indonesia.
Shipments for the season climbed to 5.352 million RB, about 955,000 bales behind exports a year ago. Exports reached about 53% of the USDA estimate, against about 50% of final 2012-13 shipments a year ago.
To achieve the USDA projection, shipments now need to average roughly 219,700 running bales a week, while weekly all-cotton sales averaging around 48,400 RB would match the export forecast.
Net all-cotton sales for shipment next season fell to 29,000 RB from 205,600 bales the previous week. This boosted 2014-15 commitments to 771,500 RB, 147,100 bales behind forward bookings a year ago.
Futures open interest dropped 1,148 lots Wednesday to 162,983, with MarchΆs down 41 lots to 163, MayΆs down 1,200 lots to 102,191 and JulyΆs down 313 lots to 33,005.
Certificated stocks increased 445 bales to 255,451. There were 1,491 newly certified bales, 1,046 bales decertified and 3,446 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index fell 100 points Thursday morning to 92.65 cents. The index premium to WednesdayΆs May futures settlement narrowed two points to 6.28 cents.
