Cotton futures closed the Friday session with gains of 82 to 86 points in the front months. May was up 82 points in the week. March futures expired today. The outside markets were supportive factors, with crude oil futures up 69 cents/barrel and the US dollar index down another $0.173 on the day.
CFTC data showed specs in cotton futures and options adding to their record net short as of March 4, by another 11,504 contracts. As of Tuesday, their net short was a record 79,957 contracts.
USDA Export Sales data has total cotton export commitments at 9.852 million RB, a 6% decline from last year. That is 96% of the USDA export forecast and 1% ahead of the average export sales pace.
Thursday’s online auction from The Seam saw 2,961 bales sold, with an average price of 59.94 cents/lb. The Cotlook A Index was back up 50 points on 3/6 at 75.45 cents/lb. ICE cotton stocks were up another 55 bales on March 6 with the current level of certified stocks at 14,488 bales. The USDA slashed their Adjusted World Price (AWP) on Thursday afternoon by 201 points to 51.88 cents/lb.
