Cotton Futures Wrap Up Tuesdays With Mixed Results

Market Overview and Crop Progress Updates

Cotton futures finished the Tuesday session with varied results, showing a drop of up to 12 points in near-term contracts while deferred contracts rose by as much as 11 points. The overall market context appears favorable, with crude oil prices increasing by $1.85 per barrel and the US dollar index climbing just 16 points.

US Cotton Crop Reports

As of October 20, the latest Crop Progress data revealed that 94% of the US cotton crop has set bolls, surpassing the five-year average by 3%. Additionally, the cotton harvest is 44% complete, which is 6 percentage points ahead of the usual pace. The condition ratings for the crop saw an improvement of 3% to 37% classified as good or excellent, but the Brugler500 index registered a slight rise of only 1 point to 295 due to a shift toward poorer conditions.

Ginning and Sales Data

Recent reports on cotton ginning indicate that 1.148 million running bales (RB) were ginned in the first two weeks of October, bringing the total for the year up to 2.294 million RB as of October 15. This marks an impressive increase of 33% compared to the same point last year.

The Seam also reported sales of 5,181 bales on October 21, with an average price of 67.63 cents per pound. On the same day, the ICE cotton stocks remained steady, resulting in 174 bales of certified stocks. Meanwhile, the Cotlook A Index rebounded by 25 points on October 21, reaching 82.60 cents per pound. However, the USDA Adjusted World Price (AWP) was reduced by another 117 points on Thursday, settling at 59.24 cents per pound.

Cotton Futures Closing Prices

Mar 25 Cotton closed at 74.04, down 8 points.

May 25 Cotton closed at 75.41, down 9 points.

Jul 25 Cotton closed at 76.37, down 7 points.

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information, please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.

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