U.S. all-cotton area estimated at 10.251 million acres, down 16.8% from last year. Upland plantings in drought-plagued Texas accounted for 56% of the all-cotton area.
Cotton futures settled mixed and with small gains beyond the front two contracts in slow dealings on the heels of the U.S. planted acreage report Friday.
Most-active December eked out a 13-point gain to 84.01 cents, just above the midpoint of its 132-point range from down 57 points at 83.31 to up 75 points at 84.63 cents. It lost 63 points for the week but gained 195 points or 2.3% for the month.
Maturing July settled off 42 points at 82.71 cents, October fell 52 points to 85.61 cents and March gained 34 points to 82.48 cents.
Volume slipped to an estimated 12,400 lots from 13,332 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 2,794 lots or 21% and EFP 528 lots. Options volume totaled 3,109 calls and 1,316 puts.
U.S. all-cotton plantings are estimated at 10.251 million acres, down 16.8% from last yearΆs 12.314 million but up 2.3% from the March intentions of 10.026 million, USDA said.
The planted area compared with average analystsΆ estimates of 10.4 million acres in a late pre-report Dow Jones Newswires survey and 10.29 million acres in a Bloomberg News survey.
Upland plantings are estimated at 10.025 million acres, down 17% from 12.076 million acres last year, and Pima plantings at 226,000 acres, down 5.2% from 238,000 in 2012. March intentions had been 9.82 million acres of upland and 206,000 acres of Pima.
The upland area declined from last year in every producing region, with upland plantings down 8.1% in the Southeast to 2.525 million acres, 36% in the Mid-South to 1.3 million, 14.9% in the Southwest to 5.88 million and 17.3% in the West to 320,000.
Upland plantings in drought-plagued Texas are estimated at 5.7 million acres, down 13% from 6.55 million last year but up 200,000 acres from the March intentions. The Texas upland acreage is pegged at 55.6% of the nationΆs all-cotton area.
Heavy acreage abandonment is expected in Texas, now in its third year of drought. In its supply-demand report earlier this month, USDA estimated abandonment in the Southwest at 32% of the March intentions.
Estimated cotton plantings are all record lows in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Producers planted 90% of their acreage with seed varieties developed using biotechnology, down 4 percentage points from last year, USDA said.
Varieties containing bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were planted on 8% of the acreage, down 6 points from 2012; herbicide resistant varieties on 15%, down 2 points; and stacked gene varieties containing both insect and herbicide resistance on 67%, up 4 points.
Futures open interest fell 273 lots Thursday to 156,811, with JulyΆs down 707 lots to 1,985 and DecemberΆs down 59 lots to 138,650.
Certificated stocks grew 16,081 bales to 612,455. There were 16,089 newly certified bales, eight bales decertified and 49,574 bales awaiting review.
World values as measured by the Cotlook A Index gained 20 points Friday morning to 91.30 cents. The index premium to ThursdayΆs futures settlements widened 75 points to 8.17 cents to July and two points to 7.42 cents to December. The index lost 105 points for the week but gained 190 points for the month.
