Survey showed average U.S. plantings estimate of 11.11 million acres, against 11.10 million acres in the March intentions. Mills raised their unpriced position in December by 8.3%. Fate of stocks debated.
Cotton futures meandered quietly within the prior-day range in most-active December and finished with a slight gain Friday to snap a three-session losing streak.
December closed up 22 points to 74.85 cents, in the upper half of its 100-point range from down 43 points at 74.20 to up 57 points at 75.20 cents. It had established the range for the day by around 6:45 a.m. CDT.
The benchmark contract lost 223 points or 2.9% for the week, its third straight weekly loss and seventh in the last eight weeks.
Maturing and thinly traded July settled up 52 points to 80.89 cents, down 727 points or 8.2% for the week.
Volume rose to an estimated 21,900 lots from 20,330 lots the previous session when spreads totaled 2,371 lots or 12% and EFP 66 lots. Options volume totaled 2,246 calls and 6,091 puts.
A survey of cotton analysts by The Wall Street Journal produced an average U.S. plantings estimate of 11.11 million acres, compared with the March intentions of 11.10 million acres and last yearΆs 10.4 million acres. Estimates ranged from 10.7 million to 11.5 million acres.
The survey is in line with some earlier estimates reported Thursday ranging from 10.7 million to 11.4 million acres with a midpoint of 11.05 million. The USDA will release results of its survey of the acreage planted and intended for planting at 11 a.m. CDT on Monday.
In other developments, mills boosted their unpriced on–call position in December by 1,114 lots or 8.3% to 14,574 lots last week, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The unfixed December producer holdings rose by 300 lots to 21,548. This narrowed the margin by which the open producer position outweighed that of mills by 814 lots to 6,974, which was 5.7% of the December open interest, down from 6.7% a week earlier.
In the 2014-15 contract months as a whole, mills held the larger unfixed position, boosting theirs by 1,502 lots to 39,578 while producers added 393 lots to hike theirs to 23,782. The overall net new-crop call difference widened 1,109 lots to 15,796 or 11.13% of the open interest.
Meanwhile, with certificated stocks continuing to grow and two major merchants stopping July deliveries through Newedge USA and Term Commodities, questions again have arisen about the fate of the cotton.
Delivery notices through Friday have totaled 676 lots or 67,600 bales, JulyΆs open interest coming into the day had fallen to 2,347 lots or 234,700 bales and cert stocks have risen to 452,727 bales. There were 22,810 bales awaiting review.
A third large merchandising firm has issued most of the notices. Analysts have pondered whether a large chunk of the stocks might have been committed and will be withdrawn and shipped in coming months.
Futures open interest dropped 653 lots Thursday to 143,899, with DecemberΆs down 820 lots to 119,052 and MarchΆs up 506 lots to 17,416.
World prices as measured by the Cotlook A Index fell 40 points Friday morning to 89.30 cents. The premium to ThursdayΆs July futures settlement widened 103 points to 8.93 cents.
Forward A Index values for 2014-15 slipped 50 points to 81.85 cents, widening the discount to the 2013-14 index by 10 points to 7.45 cents and the premium to ThursdayΆs December futures close by 13 points to 7.22 cents.
