Cotton Breaks Lower, Out of Recent Range
21 October 2017 - 2:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Julie Wernau
Cotton futures moved lower Friday with the U.S. cotton harvest
well under way and some long-positioned traders selling on the
contract's recent losses.
Cotton for December was down 0.3% at 67.11 cents a pound on the
ICE Futures U.S. exchange, its lowest close since Aug. 17.
If the contract ends at these levels, it will be the first time
in 27 sessions that cotton has broken out of a tight trading range
between 67.52 cents and 69.46 cents a pound. Plexus Cotton noted
that speculators in the market are still about 4 million bales more
net long than they were in July and the market's recent pull back
could bring additional selling from speculators.
"The plentiful supply is pressuring prices," according to
Commerzbank.
About 31% of the U.S. crop had been harvested as of the end of
last week, with Texas, the largest growing state, further along
than the long term average. About 58% of the crop has been rated
good or excellent and bulls in the market who had expected
significant changes to crop supplies as a result of flooding in
Texas from Hurricane Harvey were disappointed last week when the
U.S. Agriculture Department issued very little change to its
production forecasts.
In other markets, raw sugar for March was down 0.9% at 14 cents
a pound, cocoa for December rose 0.1% at $2,147 a ton, arabica
coffee for December was down 1.4% at $1.251 a pound and
concentrated orange juice for December up 3.5% at $1.5595 a
pound.
Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 20, 2017 11:30 ET (15:30 GMT)
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