Cotton futures ticked up a few points in spot July on the heels of the U.S. weekly export report but promptly slipped back into the red.
July hovered off 18 points to 85.90 cents at 8 a.m. CDT, trading within a tight 52-point range from 85.83 to 86.35 cents on a contract volume of 1,967 points.
December traded off 55 points to 77.33 cents, a tick off the low of its 68-point range from 78 to 77.32 cents on a turnover of 1,029 lots. The inverted July-December spread gained 37 points to 857 points.
Net U.S. upland export sales for shipment this season jumped to 131,500 running bales during the week ended May 29, up from 61,000 bales the week before and 2% from the prior four-week average.
China again was the largest buying destination, booking 81,400 bales or 62%, followed by Turkey, 14,500 bales; South Korea, 7,700; Taiwan, 6,400; Thailand, 5,000; and Guatemala, 3,700. Sales went to 18 countries. Gross sales were 133,600 bales and cancellations were 2,100 bales.
Upland sales for shipment next season rose to 176,400 bales from 114,300 bales the previous week, with 83,600 bales or 47% going to China, 49,100 to Turkey and 11,300 to Mexico.
Shipments of upland fell 22% from the previous week and 19% from the prior four-week average to 168,200 RB, still above the weekly average needed to reach the USDA estimate.
In outside markets, Dow Jones futures traded up 32 points and S&P futures up 3.25 points, while dollar index futures rose 0.219 to 80.925, crude oil fell 74 cents to $101.90, Brent crude dropped 52 cents to $107.88 and gold gained $10.60 to $1,254.60. July contracts were lower for corn, soybeans and Chicago wheat and higher for Kansas City wheat.
ChinaΆs Zhengzhou cotton futures settled lower beyond untraded July, down 60 yuan or 0.34% in September and 145 yuan or 0.93% in most-active January. Prices finished mixed on the China National Cotton Exchange.
In U.S. futures Wednesday, July finished back below its nine-day moving average after having closed above that mark the prior day for the first time since May 6. July options expire Friday, and the Goldman roll begins that day.
The July-December spread traded on premiums on July from 970 to 800 points and narrowed 106 points to settle at 820 points on a volume of 7,068 lots. December-March traded from three points December-over to 30 points March-over and widened 26 points to close at 28 points March-over on 901 lots.
Cash trading was inactive on both the grower-to-business and business-to-business exchanges on The Seam.
