December surged 120 points to 73.59 cents. U.S. export commitments reached 84% of the USDA estimate and were up 4.1 million running bales from a year ago. Shipments widened the lead over year-ago exports to nearly 2 million RB.
Cotton futures finished on a new six-month high close on a huge market volume and heavy spread trading as some new-crop contracts settled on triple-digit gains Thursday.
Spot March closed up 47 points to 76.85 cents, its highest finish since Aug. 5 and the upper third of its 168-point range from up 96 points at 77.40 to down 72 points at 75.72 cents. It posted the high overnight, fell to the low before midmorning and rallied to 77.05 in the late going.
May gained 52 points to settle at 77.57 cents, July added 61 points to close at 78.18 cents and December advanced 120 points to finish at 73.59 cents.
Volume hit an estimated 69,012 lots, up from 47,585 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 24,153 lots or 51%, EFP 326 lots and EFS 184 lots. Options volume rose to 25,070 lots — 16,772 calls and 8,298 puts — from 15,335 lots.
Another round of strong U.S. weekly export sales and a jump in shipments came amid expectations in some quarters for an increase in the 2016-17 export forecast in USDAΆs supply-demand report next week.
Net all-cotton export sales for shipment this season of 335,400 running bales during the week ended Jan. 26, though down from the marketing year high of 463,500 RB sold the prior week, brought 2016-17 commitments to 10.194 million RB. Upland sales of 328,700 RB were up 8% from the four-week average.
Commitments — outstanding sales of 5.123 million RB plus shipments — were up 4.104 million RB or 67% from cumulative sales a year ago. Total sales reached 84% of the USDA estimate, compared with 69% of final 2015-16 shipments at the corresponding point last year.
All-cotton shipments quickened to 360,500 RB from 241,400 RB the week before, boosting the seasonΆs total to 5.071 million RB. The lead over year-ago exports widened 116,000 RB to nearly 2 million RB.
Upland shipments of 354,483 RB, up 56% from the prior week and 55% from the previous four-week average, were the largest since the week ended April 30, 2015.
Exports were 42% of the USDA forecast. A year ago, shipments were 35% of final exports. To achieve the estimate, shipments need to average roughly 271,300 RB a week, while sales averaging only about 46,000 RB weekly would match the export forecast.
Sales for 2017-18 jumped to 89,000 RB, largest new-crop bookings since the current marketing year began. Commitments for 2017-18 rose to 701,700 RB, still behind year-ago forward sales of 834,900 RB.
Futures open interest swelled an additional 6,145 lots Wednesday to 282,747, with MarchΆs down 610 lots to 152,141 and MayΆs up 3,601 lots to 64,353. Open interest coming into ThursdayΆs session had surged 19,101 lots from a week earlier. The record high is 302,683 lots in March 2008.
Stocks in deliverable position jumped 41,083 bales to 194,718, up from 127,255 bales a week ago and the largest since July 23, 2014.
