Improved crop weather weighed. Mills priced 556 on-call lots and producers 519 lots in December during the latest report week. Quality of 18,152 bales classed Monday eyed. Outstanding loans rose to 144,782 bales.
Cotton futures slipped to a three-session low and closed on a modest loss in benchmark December Tuesday, extending the reversal off ThursdayΆs high.
December settled on a six-session low close, down 34 points at 69.74 cents, in the lower third of its 141-point range from up 69 points at 70.77 to down 72 points at 69.36 cents. March closed down 30 points to 70.24 cents and December 2017 finished down 20 points to 70.34 cents.
Improved crop weather, especially in the West Texas Plains and the Delta, appeared to have weighed on market sentiment.
Volume was estimated at 16,925 lots, compared with 16,509 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 5,766 lots or 35%, EFP 205 lots and EFS 199 lots. Options volume totaled 1,716 calls and 2,772 puts.
Unpriced mill on-call sales, representing potential buying of futures, have offered an underpinning.
The unfixed mill position in December coming into last week had dipped 556 lots from the previous week to 24,297, according to the latest on-call data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The unpriced producer holdings, representing potential selling of futures, dropped 519 lots to 12,565 during the latest reporting week ended Sept. 16.
This resulted in the net call difference widening by a slight 37 lots to 11,732 (1.173 million bales), which was 7.7% of DecemberΆs declining open interest, compared with 7.6% a week earlier.
The unpriced mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 1.93:1, compared with 1.89:1 the week before.
Elsewhere, mills added 868 lots in March, 395 lots in May, 69 lots in July and 315 lots in December 2017. Producers added 66 lots in March, priced 81 lots in May, and added 22 lots in July and 854 lots in December 2017.
Across the board, unpriced on-call positions grew a net 1,011 lots to 74,073 on the mill side and a net 452 lots to 23,760 on the producer side.
On the crop scene, predominant grades on 18,152 bales of U.S. upland cotton classed by USDA on Monday were color 41 (strict low middling) and leaf 3. Staple averaged 35.75, mike 4.62, strength 30.63, uniformity 81.31 and trash 0.43. Bark totaled 1.95% and grass 0.83%.
The classing included 11,660 bales at Corpus Christi, Tex.; 1,434 at Dumas, Ark.; 1,266 at Macon, Ga.; 801 at Memphis, Tenn.; and 1,579 at Rayville, La.
Meanwhile, U.S. outstanding loans on 2016-crop upland increased 13,372 running bales to 144,782 during the week ended Sept. 19, according to the latest USDA weekly figures. Entries totaled 47,573 bales and repayments were made on 34,201 bales.
Futures open interest expanded 2,581 lots Monday to 253,449, with DecemberΆs up 844 lots to 166,611 and MarchΆs up 1,516 lots to 53,372. Cert stocks grew 270 bales to 31,614.
