NEW YORK, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled higher
on Monday on investor buying in very thin dealings, with
analysts saying a lack of interest and lack of market-moving
news may keep trading in fiber contracts quiet this week.
The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
rose 0.60 cent to close at $1.0492 per lb, trading from $1.035
to $1.0578.
It was an inside day for the second session in a row
because the range was within Friday's $1.0215 to $1.0488 band.
The Friday range in turn was within Thursday's $1.0174 to
$1.0639 band.
Total volume traded was a little over 4,500 lots,
preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed. That would put it on
track as the lowest traded daily volume in over 20 months,
according to ICE Futures U.S. data.
'We've got one of the slowest days in the last two years,'
said independent cotton analyst Mike Stevens.
He said stronger corn and soybean prices kept investors
glued to the grains complex and led to a lack of interest in
cotton.
Traders said the December contract seems pinned between the
psychological $1 mark to around $1.0416, the area of support
where it broke down last week.
Traders are mulling how damage was inflicted by Hurricane
Irene on the U.S. cotton crop in Virginia, North and South
Carolina. Rains falling on open cotton bolls would badly hurt
cotton quality.
The U.S. Agriculture Department's weekly crop progress
report on Monday showed 40 percent of North Carolina's cotton
bolls were open during the week ended Aug. 28. It was 11
percent in South Carolina and 8 percent for Virginia.
The storm hit those states on August 28.
Traders said market participants will then await release of
next month's USDA monthly supply/demand report to get a better
idea about world and U.S. supply/demand conditions in the
2011/12 marketing year (August/July).
The level of investor interest in the cotton market hit
146,987 lots as of Aug. 26, according to exchange data.
Total volume traded Friday hit 8,194 lots, over half below
the prior tally of 16,655 lots, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.
