NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures settled
mixed Friday as fiber contracts languished and players mulled
what market direction next week, brokers said.
The key July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
shed 0.04 cent to close at $1.5561 per lb, dealing from $1.5006
to $1.5702. On the week, the market's benchmark contract is up
7.21 percent.
New-crop December rose 0.57 cent to finish at
$1.1976, moving between $1.1711 and $1.2024.
Volume stood around 11.300 lots, almost 50 percent below
the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
'It's almost like the dog days of summer,' Jobe Moss, an
analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas,
said in describing the lackluster tone of Friday's session.
He said a lack of interest and a lack of business kept
cotton futures trading in lethargic fashion.
Sean McGillivray, head of asset allocation at Great Pacific
Wealth Management, said most of the action in the market was
technical in nature given the dearth of leads at this time.
Market players digested news that clothing maker and
retailer Gap said higher price tags will be enough to offset
rising cotton costs.
'That could be seen as bearish because of its negative
implications for demand,' a dealer said.
Analysts said cotton players may have to contend with a
possible squeeze in the July contract because of tight
deliverable supplies, although first notice day for deliveries
is not until next month.
December and the back months in the cotton market are being
supported by a severe drought savaging cotton crops in Texas,
the biggest cotton growing state in the country.
Farmers along the swollen Mississippi also have to contend
with severe floods which have drowned thousands of acres of
cotton. The actual number of acres lost in both Texas and the
U.S. Delta states will not be known until the middle of June,
the analysts said.
Volume traded on May 19 stood at 14,398 lots, versus the
prior tally of 14,848 lots, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.
Open interest stood at 150,799 lots as of May 19, from
150,620 lots in the previous session, the exchange said.
