ICE cotton futures shed nearly 2 percent on
Thursday, in the biggest one-day percentage decline in over three-weeks, on the
back of a negative U.S. export sales report. The July cotton contract on ICE
Futures U.S. settled down 1.80 percent at 77.96 cents per lb, marking the
largest daily percentage decline since April 3. "The export sales report
was surprisingly low today.
Such a negative export sales had the capacity to take a lot of optimism
out of the market, so by itself the export sales were enough to cause the drop
today," according to Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe
Generale in New York. Weekly export sales data from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed net upland sales totaled 115,500
running bales for the previous week, down 49 percent from the week before and
the lowest level since late September.
"Today''s drop will likely lead to some additional selling tomorrow
as speculative longs throw in the towel," said INTL FCStone
analyst Andy Ryan in a note. "Should the market continue to
fall, we believe physical demand will turn very strong for U.S. bales again at
77.00 cents and lower." * The July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
settled down 1.43 cent, or 1.80 percent, at 77.96 cents per lb. It traded
within a range of 77.85 and 79.36 cents a lb. * Total futures market volume
fell by 2,899 to 21,170 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 5,028 to
252,911 contracts in the previous session. (Reporting by Apeksha Nair and Karen
Rodrigues in Bengaluru.
Source: DNA India, India Friday, 28 April 2017