Market Performance Overview
As the weekend approached, the front month cotton futures saw a slight dip of 10 to 100 points in the active contracts on Friday. However, March futures managed a 73 point gain, with Open Interest (OI) listed at just 409 contracts. Despite this increase, prices for December closed the week with a net loss of 69 points from Friday to Friday.
Trader Activity
According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), cotton spec traders added new long positions throughout the week ending on 2/20. This activity left the group with a net long position of 86.1k contracts, an increase of 14.5k contracts. In contrast, commercial cotton hedgers added 7k new short positions during the same period, expanding their net short position to 129.3k contracts.
Export Sales and Shipments
The USDA’s weekly report on cotton export sales revealed a total of 130.5k RBs for the week ending on 2/15, showing a decrease from the previous week’s 160k RBs. Shipments stood at 255.5k RBs, bringing the season’s total exports to 5.07m RBs and total commitments to 10.4m RBs. Additionally, the USDA reported the sale of 255k RBs for the new crop.
Market Trends and Indicators
Week 12,251 bales were sold this week at an average price of 88.33 cents/lb, as per the USDA’s weekly Cotton Market review. The Cotlook A Index experienced a decline of 230 points to 99.30 cents/lb, while the AWP strengthened by 168 points to reach 75.12 cents. As of 2/21, ICE certified stocks amounted to 997 bales.
Mar 24 Cotton closed at 95.42, up 122 points,
May 24 Cotton closed at 93.37, down 109 points,
Jul 24 Cotton closed at 92.5, down 112 points
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler 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.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
