December lost a dime for the month. All-cotton export commitments reached 49% of the USDA estimate. Cotton ginned as of mid-October totaled only 1.146 million bales.
Cotton futures staged a bearish outside-range reversal Thursday, settling at a new low close for the move after topping the highs of the previous two sessions.
Spot December closed down 66 points to 77.18 cents, just off the low of its 198-point range from up 125 points at 79.09 cents to down 73 points at 77.11 cents. It settled below the low of the previous session and finished at the lowest spot continuation close since Jan. 15.
December lost 10.03 cents or 11.5% from its settlement on Sept. 30. March closed at 79.20 cents, down 63 points for day, widening the December-March settlement difference to 202 points.
The market reversed course to settle in the red for the 10th consecutive session after larger-than-expected export sales data reported by USDA fueled the sharp advance. December had posted lower highs eight straight sessions.
Volume quickened to an estimated 39,500 lots from 31,842 lots the previous session when spreads rose to 16,915 lots or 53% and EFP accounted for 30 lots. Options volume totaled 3,017 calls and 2,803 puts.
U.S. all-cotton export commitments for shipment this season reached 4.972 million running bales as of Oct. 24, down 1.115 million bales or 18% from a year ago. Commitments were 49% of the USDA estimate, against 48% of final shipments at the corresponding point last season.
Cumulative all-cotton shipments stood at 1.762 million running bales, 146,000 bales or 7.7% behind year-ago exports. Shipments were almost 18% of the USDA forecast, compared with about 15% of final 2012-13 exports a year ago.
Upland commitments of 171,900 running bales for shipment next season were down from forward bookings a year ago of 262,100 bales.
Separately, U.S. all-cotton ginned as of Oct. 15 of 1,145,800 running bales amounted to only 38.9% of the 2,942,600 bales processed a year ago, according to other data also reported by USDA Thursday.
The mid-October count was down from 3,467,450 bales in 2011 and 4,715,800 in 2010. Gins in Texas had processed 572,600 bales, down from 1,112,050 a year earlier, 1,367,850 in 2011 and 1.364 million in 2010.
Futures open interest fell 6,121 lots Wednesday to 196,039, with DecemberΆs down 5,910 lots to 100,337 and MarchΆs down 676 lots to 71,901. First notice day for December deliveries is now 15 trading days ahead.
Certificated stocks grew 4,924 bales to 146,349 on 9,924 newly certified bales and 5,000 decertified bales. Awaiting review were 35,099 bales, including 7,180 at Galveston, 10,059 at Greenville and 17,860 at Memphis.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index dropped 30 points Thursday morning to 85.40 cents. The premium to WednesdayΆs December futures settlement widened 20 points to 7.56 cents. For the month, the index lost 725 points or 7.4%.
