Mills added 471 lots to their unfixed on-call position in December last week and producers fixed 2,435 lots. Classing office at Corpus Christi graded 26,672 bales this week.
An upside probe lost momentum just above the prior-day high, basis benchmark December, and cotton futures touched the low in the late going to close a brutal week for the bulls with mostly slight losses Friday.
December closed off 10 points at 84.08 cents, near the low of its 130-point range from up 105 points at 85.23 to down 25 points at 83.93 cents. It edged four ticks above ThursdayΆs high and held a couple of ticks above ThursdayΆs low.
Thinly traded October settled up 29 points to 84.24 cents, the only 2013-14 crop year contract on the plus side, and March closed down 13 points to 83.50 cents.
For the week, driven by speculative long liquidation, the market lost 916 points in October, 924 points in December and 654 points in March.
Volume slowed to an estimated 18,200 lots from 27,211 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 6,307 lots or 23% and EFP 108 lots. Options volume totaled 4,941 calls and 5,153 puts.
Unfixed on-call positions based in December rose by 471 lots to 29,761 on the mill side and fell 2,435 lots to 9,476 on the producer side last week, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The net call difference expanded 2,906 lots to 20,285, which was 11.91% of DecemberΆs rising open interest, against 10.97% a week earlier. The ratio of unfixed mill positions to those of producers widened to 3.14:1 from 2.46:1 the previous week.
In March, mills added 2,414 lots to raise their holdings there to 16,441 lots and producers nudged theirs up 222 lots to 1,970. This left mills with 8.85 contracts to be covered for each one held by producers.
In the 2013-14 marketing year contracts, mills added a combined 3,258 to boost their unfixed holdings to 59,125 lots producers pared theirs by 2,365 lots to 12,457, widening the ratio to 4.75:1 from 3.77:1. The mills had 50.3% of their open 2013-14 call holdings in December.
Mills stepped up their fixations and securing of additional cotton late this week and export inquiries and demand quickened, helping to stabilize prices around the 84-cent area, basis December, analysts said.
On the crop scene, the Corpus Christi classing office graded 26,672 bales during the week ended Thursday, up from 15,566 bales the previous week, to bring the seasonΆs total to 44,428 bales.
Cotton tenderable on futures contracts totaled 59.2% for the week and 58.9% for the season. A year ago, the facility had graded 310,809 bales and classing for the corresponding week of 96,015 bales exceeded the current total for the season.
Futures open interest fell 6,423 lots Thursday to 190,766, with DecemberΆs down 7,131 lots to 145,300 and MarchΆs up 622 lots to 34,179. Certificated stocks declined 2,644 bales to 34,487.
The Cotlook A Index of world values was flat Friday morning at 89.85 cents, widening the premium to ThursdayΆs December futures settlement by six points to 5.67 cents. For the week, the index lost 625 points.
