NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures lost ground on Thursday, as recent rains in West Texas, the largest cotton-producing region, continued to boost the outlook for the crop and offset a weekly federal report showing higher export sales.

Cotton contracts for July fell 0.19 cent, or 0.2% to 82.25 cents per lb by 12:49 p.m. EDT (1649 GMT). It traded within a range of 81.65 to 82.78 cents a lb.

Total futures market volume fell by 4,610 to 15,691 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 386 to 223,052 contracts in the previous session.

“(Export) sales were very friendly and the weather patterns have been very negative, so cotton is a little bit caught between (these) two forces,” said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland. The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) weekly export sales report showed net sales of 171,200 Running Bales for the 2020/2021 marking year, 59% higher than the prior week.