Weekly Cotton Futures Update: Prices Decline Amid Mixed Market Signals

Cotton Futures Experience Setbacks as Export Data and Speculation Shift

Cotton futures closed Friday’s session down by 20 to 97 points across various contracts, with December contracts declining by another 33 points this week. The broader market showed mixed signals, as crude oil prices rose by $1.56 per barrel, while the US dollar index climbed by 281 points.

In the Weekly Export Sales report, cotton sales showed modest improvement, reaching 5.474 million running bales (RB). However, this figure represents only 51% of the USDA’s export forecast. Additionally, it falls 11 percentage points behind the 50-year average sales pace.

According to the Commitment of Traders report, speculative funds adjusted their positions, reducing their net short by 6,470 contracts as of October 22. This adjustment brings their total net short position to 6,194 contracts as of Tuesday.

The Seam reported 570 bales of online cotton sales on October 24, with an average price of 71.25 cents per pound. Meanwhile, ICE cotton stocks remained unchanged on Thursday, totaling 174 bales of certified stocks. The Cotlook A Index increased by 45 points to 84.25 cents per pound on October 24, while the USDA Adjusted World Price (AWP) rose by 4 points to reach 59.28 cents per pound in the afternoon.

March 25 Cotton closed at 72.85, down 77 points.

May 25 Cotton closed at 74.39, down 64 points.

July 25 Cotton closed at 75.46, down 52 points.

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not hold any direct or indirect positions in the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article are solely for informational purposes. For further details, please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.