Triple Digit Losses for Friday Cotton

The cotton futures market kept July contracts in the black for most of the day, but it faded in the afternoon to close 93 points lower. The new crop contracts ended the day with 192 to 232 point losses. For the week, July cotton printed a 7.88 cent range and closed 124 points in the red from Friday to Friday. Dec cotton stayed in a wide 8.81 cent range, and settled 4.1% lower wk/wk. Red December closed 79 points weaker on Friday at 93.76 cents/lb. That is down 4.64 cents (4.7%) from the LoC high on 5/18. 

Weekly Commitment of Traders data showed managed money firms were 1,378 contracts less net long in cotton week over week as of 5/31. That left the group 60,334 contracts net long – their weakest since July ’21. Commercial cotton traders added 3.5k new long hedges for a 2,627 contract lighter net short wk/wk of 104,117 contracts. 

Export Sales data released this morning showed 354,200 RBs of cotton was sold for 21/22 delivery. That was a 10-week high as China alone booked 144,700 RBs. USDA reported 22/23 cotton sales were 109,100 RBs. There are now 3.26m RBs on the books for NMY. Old crop exports were tallied at 484,200 RBs from the week of 5/26, a marketing year high. That left the accumulated export program at 10.1m RBs through 5/26. 

The Cotlook A index for 6/1 was another 50 points lower to 156.95.  USDA’s FSA reduced the AWP for cotton by 4.5 cents to 135.36 cents/lb for the week. 

Jul 22 Cotton  closed at 138.18, down 93 points,

Dec 22 Cotton  closed at 117.9, down 220 points,

Mar 23 Cotton  closed at 113.45, down 232 points