Unpriced mill sales in 2013-14 contract months totaled 55,097 lots, against 7,721 unfixed lots held by producers. Upland loans outstanding declined 102,984 bales to 1.998 million.
Cotton futures finished mixed Friday on the heels of major index funds having completed their rolls from the front month.
Spot March eased five points to settle at 87.55 cents, around the lower third of its 145-point range from up 92 points at 88.52 to down 53 points at 87.07 cents.
Most-active May closed up 46 points to 89.04 cents, in the upper third of its 150-point range from 87.95 to 89.45 cents. July gained 36 points to 88.58 cents and December dropped 47 points to 77.68 cents, widening the July settlement premium to 1,090 points.
For the week, March eked up eight ticks, May gained 119 points and July advanced 147 points, while December lost 26 points.
Unfixed on-call sales in March declined 2,124 lots to 13,759 on the mill side last week and 381 lots to 3,989 on the producer side, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The net call difference dropped 1,743 lots to 9,770, which was 14.46% of MarchΆs declining open interest, against 12.82% a week earlier. The unfixed mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 3.45:1.
Mills increased their unpriced on-call holdings by a combined 1,607 lots to 41,338 in May and July, while producers trimmed theirs by 267 lots to 3,732.
In all the remaining 2013-14 contracts of March through July, unfixed positions dropped 507 lots to 55,097 on the mill side and 267 lots to 7,721 on the producer side.
This resulted in the net call difference dipping by 240 lots to 47,376, which represented 31.09% of the declining open interest, up from 27.79% a week earlier. Mills had 7.14 contracts on which to fix prices for every one by producers.
On the competitive-pricing scene, the average of the five lowest quoted world growths for the Far East gained 183 points to 92.46 cents during the week ended Thursday, according to USDA, and the lowest quoted U.S. growth landed there rose 215 points to 96.95 cents.
The U.S. premium thus widened 32 points to 4.49 cents. The adjusted world price for the week ahead is 72.22 cents, USDA announced, up from 70.39 cents this week.
Separately, U.S. upland loans outstanding declined 102,984 running bales to 1,997,923 during the week ended Tuesday, USDA figures showed. Repayments totaled 135,719 bales and entries were 32,735 bales.
Upland cotton under loan included 174,475 bales of Form A issued to individual growers and 1,823,485 bales of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest gained 425 lots Thursday to 181,075, with MarchΆs down 10,840 lots to 33,657 and MayΆs up 9,265 lots to 93,638. The total was up 5,143 lots from a week ago.
Certificated stocks grew 4,017 bales to 248,837, up 32,027 bales on the week. Cotton simultaneously in both the cert stocks and the Commodity Credit Corp. loan totaled 74,309 bales.
World prices as measured by the Cotlook A Index dipped 25 points Friday morning to 94.85 cents. The premium to ThursdayΆs March and May futures settlements widened 52 points and two points, respectively, to 7.25 and 6.27 cents. For the week, the index gained 180 points.
