U.S. export commitments widened the lead over year-ago bookings to 3.7 million running bales or 66%. Mills priced 1,609 lots in spot March.
Cotton futures finished on modest gains Friday after spot March posted its session high right after USDA released another strong weekly export sales report.
March edged up 35 points to close at 73.04 cents, near the middle of its tight 71-point range from up three points at 72.72 to up 74 points to 73.43 cents. It gained 77 points for the week.
May gained 41 points to settle at 73.67 cents, while December eked up six points to 71.19 cents. For the week, May rose 91 points and December added 29 points.
Volume slipped to an estimated 21,727 lots from 23,128 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 11,733 lots or 51%, EFP 113 lots and EFS 96 lots. Options volume totaled 2,098 calls and 2,047 puts.
Net U.S. all-cotton export sales for shipment this season of 352,700 running bales during the week ended Jan. 12, up from 246,000 RB the previous week, boosted 2016-17 commitments to 9.395 million RB.
Commitments — outstanding sales of 4.926 million RB plus shipments — widened the lead over year ago bookings by 148,000 RB to 3.726 million RB or 66%. Cumulative sales reached 77% of the USDA export forecast, compared with 64% of final 2015-16 shipments a year ago.
All-cotton shipments of 238,600 RB, up from 222,200 RB the prior week, brought exports for the season to 4.47 million RB, widening the lead over year-ago exports to 1.8 million RB or 67%.
Shipments of upland and Pima combined were 37% of the USDA projection. A year ago, shipments were 30% of final 2015-16 exports.
Net sales for shipment next season of 31,700 RB, up from 5,700 RB the week before, brought 2017-18 commitments to 602,300 RB. The lag behind forward bookings a year ago narrowed 21,400 RB to 157,100 RB.
Meanwhile, mills priced 1,609 lots last week in spot March to reduce their unpriced on-call position there to 36,665 lots, while producers added 72 lots to nudge theirs up to 32,656, according to data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after the close Thursday.
The net call difference narrowed 1,681 lots to 32,656 (3.266 million bales), which was 19.3% of MarchΆs declining open interest. The unpriced mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 9.14:1.
The unfixed mill position increased 1,335 lots in May to 27,830 and 3,197 lots to 27,251 in July, boosting their unfixed position in 2016-17 marketing year contract months by a net 2,923 lots to 91,746 lots.
Producers added 164 lots in May and 343 lots in July, hiking their unfixed positions in those months to 2,485 and 2,292 lots, respectively, and their unpriced 2016-17 holdings by 561 lots to 8,786.
The net call difference in March, May and July widened a combined 2,362 lots to 82,960, 34.7% of the three-month open interest.
In December, the unpriced positions rose by 1,000 lots to 12,060 on the mill side and by 2,115 lots to 11,391 on the producer side.
Futures open interest declined 1,292 lots Thursday to 259,328, with MarchΆs down 2,544 lots to 162,081 and MayΆs up 766 lots to 44,341. Cert stocks grew 2,796 bales to 117,526. There were 3,696 bales awaiting review.
