Mills stepped up their pricing in spot July to a hefty 11,322 lots. U.S. 2016-crop upland cotton under loan declined to 996,646 RB.
Cotton futures settled higher in traded contracts across the board Friday, up 15 to 151 points, as December finally snapped a string of 10 losing sessions in a row.
December rallied from yet another new low for the move to close up 28 points to 67.02 cents, in the upper third of its 100-point range from down 41 points at 66.33 cents to up 59 points at 67.33 cents. For the week, December lost 234 points.
July led the gains, closing above highs of the prior five sessions at 72.65 cents ahead of first notice day on Monday. It traded within a 207-point range from 71.03 to 73.10 cents and finished with a gain for the week of 77 points. The inverted July-December switch traded as wide as a 579-point July premium.
October gained 94 points to settle at 68.97 cents, still down 189 points for the week. It traded within a 154-point range from 67.52 to 69.06 cents and ticked last at 68 cents.
Volume slipped to an estimated 30,720 lots from 42,546 lots the prior day when spreads accounted for 13,045 lots or 31%, EFS 3,000 lots, EFP 21 lots and block trades 30 lots. Options volume dipped to 9,016 lots (4,027 calls and 4,989 puts) from 17,870 lots (5,362 calls and 12,508 puts).
Mills stepped up their on-call pricing in spot July last week to a hefty 11,322 lots, according to figures released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after the close Thursday. This slashed their unpriced position to 4,178 lots.
Producers priced 1,287 lots to reduce their call position to 1,030 lots. With first notice day five trading sessions ahead at the time, the net difference fell 10,035 lots to 3,148, 16% of the July open interest.
In the new-crop contracts from December 2017 through July 2018, mills priced a net 2,583 lots, reducing their unpriced position to 78,768 lots. Producers added a net eight lots and had an unfixed position of 26,729 lots. The net call difference thus declined 2,591 lots to 52,039, which was 27.3% of the then-rising December-July open interest.
In the big December contract, which accounted for 74% of the marketΆs overall and declining open interest, mills priced 3,511 lots and producers priced 938 lots, reducing their call positions to 33,798 lots and 22,016 lots, respectively. The net difference of 11,782 lots, down 2,573 lots, was 7.4% of DecemberΆs rising OI.
Overall, unpriced positions fell 12,737 lots to 88,693 on the mill side and 708 lots to 35,050 lots on the producer side, dropping the net call difference by 12,029 lots to 53,643. That was 24.9% of the total OI.
Meanwhile, repayments on 189,511 running bales reduced U.S. 2016-crop upland cotton under loan to 996,646 RB during the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.
Loans outstanding included 103,725 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 892,921 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest dropped 2,717 lots to 202,249 on Thursday, with JulyΆs down 2,573 lots to 4,880, DecemberΆs down 1,821 lots to 158,314 and MarchΆs up 703 lots to 25,973. Total OI has declined seven consecutive sessions.
Certified stocks grew 3,109 bales to 490,897. There were 3,151 newly certified bales and 42 bales decertified. Awaiting review were 2,275 bales at Memphis.
