March lost 107 points for the week. All-cotton export commitments reached 61% of the USDA estimate and shipments were 22% of the forecast.
Cotton futures set the trading ranges in the early going Friday and finished with modest losses, unable to make it into the plus column in the abbreviated post-Thanksgiving session.
March gapped lower and hit the dayΆs low right off the bat, down 124 points at 70.40 cents, trimmed the loss to 16 points at the high at 71.48 cents and finished off 39 points at 71.25 cents, its fifth consecutive loss. It touched the high on the heels of a larger-than-expected weekly export sales report.
Maturing December settled down 43 points to 72.65 cents, trading within an 84-point range from 71.96 to 72.80 cents, and December 2017 closed down 15 points to 70.22 cents.
For the week, the market lost 75 points in December, 107 points in March and 56 points in December 2017.
Volume totaled an electronically estimated 12,300 lots, compared with 21,512 lots the full previous session.
Net U.S. all-cotton export sales for shipment this season of 259,200 running bales during the week ended Nov. 17, up from 220,300 RB the previous week, boosted 2016-17 commitments to 7.046 million RB, USDAΆs weekly report showed.
This was nearly 61% of the USDA export projection, compared with sales at 50% of final 2015-16 shipments at the corresponding point last season. The lead over commitments a year ago narrowed to 2.56 million RB or to 58%.
Closing prices during the reporting week ranged from 69.03 to 72.54 cents for a five-day average of 70.61 cents, basis March futures.
Upland net sales of 254,800 RB, up 19% from the previous week and 52% from the four-week average, went to 18 countries, led by China, Vietnam, South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan.
All-cotton shipments of 144,300 RB, up from 110,300 RB the prior week, brought the total for the season to 2.612 million RB, 50% of the USDA forecast and up 962,000 RB or also 58% from year-ago exports. Shipments a year ago were 19% of final 2015-16 exports.
Upland shipments of 132,400 RB, up 35% from the previous week and 9% from the four-week average, were headed to 21 countries. The leading destinations included China, Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia and Brazil.
To achieve the USDA estimate, all-cotton shipments now need to average roughly 244,000 RB per week, while weekly sales averaging around 124,200 RB would match the export forecast.
Sales for shipment in 2017-18 of 44,200 RB, up from 900 RB the week before and the largest thus far this season, boosted forward bookings to 494,700 RB. A year ago, forward bookings were 636,500 RB.
Futures open interest increased 954 lots Wednesday to 252,747, with DecemberΆs down 250 lots to 1,349, MarchΆs down 664 lots to 182,203 and MayΆs up 1,687 lots to 37,039. Cert stocks grew 2,439 bales to 51,103. Awaiting review were 1,290 bales.
