Cotton is trading off the overnight highs but up by double digits, and by 75 points in old crop, this morning. May cotton futures kept to a mostly tight range from -26 to +120 points, and finished the day with a 61 point gain. The lead month finished the week with a net 15 point loss, and closed the month of March a net 8.2 cents/lb in the red after setting new highs in Feb. Open interest in March peaked near 130k contracts at the Feb high, but has since slipped to near 110k contracts. December cotton open interest continues to build, now near 80.6k contracts. Dec cotton was up by 65 points on Thursday, finishing out the week with a net 4 point gain and the month with a net 18 point gain. 

Commitment of Traders data showed spec funds in cotton futures and options holding a net long position of 84,468 contracts as of March 26. That was a 5,054 contract reduction from the week previous.

FAS data showed cotton bookings were 98.2k RBs for the week that ended 3/21. That was up 8% for the week and was 46% above the 4-wk average. Cotton exports were listed at 360,721 RBs, for a season total of 6.724 million. That is now 2.5% ahead of last year’s pace, with unshipped sales still trailing by 5.7%. New crop sales reached 1.063 million RBs, which is still 22% behind last year’s pace. 

NASS surveys found 10.673 million acres are intended for cotton planting this season. That was a 443k acre increase from last year, and compares to the 11.3 million expected. Each pre-report survey response had acreage up yr/yr, though the March number was at the low end of estimates. 

USDA’s weekly Cotton Market Review had 7,069 bales sold during the week for an average price of 85.19 cents/lb. The 3/26 Cotlook A Index was 45 points higher to 96.90 cents/lb. USDA’s FSA lowered the week’s Adjusted World Price of cotton by 162 points to 70.88 cents/lb. ICE certified stocks were shown at 52,224 bales as of 3/27. 

May 24 Cotton  closed at 91.38, up 61 points, currently up 75 points

Jul 24 Cotton  closed at 91.97, up 53 points, currently up 74 points

Dec 24 Cotton  closed at 83.99, up 65 points, currently up 16 points