Mills added 542 lots to their unpriced on-call December position last week and producers priced 480 lots. Differences noted in IndiaΆs CAB updated 2015-16 estimates and USDAΆs. U.S. upland outstanding loans declined to 698,333 bales.
Cotton futures finished higher for the sixth session in a row Friday, hitting a new intraday high for the move and settling on a new two-year high in most-active December.
December settled up 41 points to 74.28 cents, in the upper half of its 166-point range from up 113 points at 75 cents to down 53 points at 73.34 cents. It gained 847 points or 12.9% for the week.
March settled up 65 points at 74.19 cents, while nearby October edged up four points to close at 73.86 cents. For the week, March advanced 826 points and October gained 794 points.
Volume slipped to an estimated 28,923 lots from 33,668 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 9,467 lots or 28%, EFP 299 lots and EFP 116 lots. Options volume totaled 5,403 calls and 6,716 puts.
Unpriced on-call positions rose by 542 lots on the mill side and declined 480 lots on the producer side last week, according to the latest data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Unfixed positions rose to 35,879 lots on the mill side and fell to 17,930 lots on the producer side, widening the net call difference by 1,022 lots to 17,949. The difference was 11.84% of DecemberΆs rising open interest, up from 11.07% the prior week. MillsΆ unpriced position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 2.00:1, against 1.92:1.
Elsewhere, mills added 475 lots in March, 525 lots in May, 54 lots in July 2017 and 375 lots in December 2017, while the only other producer activity was the addition of 499 lots in December 2017.
On the international scene, IndiaΆs Cotton Advisory Board has cut its estimate of the countryΆs 2015-16 production to 33.8 million bales of 170 kilos (26.4 million 480-pound bales).
That compares with the latest USDA estimate for the worldΆs largest cotton producer of 26.8 million statistical bales, unchanged from last monthΆs projection. The CAB estimate is down 1.09 million 480-pound bales from its February forecast.
ThereΆs a wide gap in ending stocks estimates. The CABΆs converted estimates showed ending stocks of 3.36 million bales, down from its figure for 2014-15 of 5.17 million and from USDAΆs 2015-16 projection of 11.19 million bales.
The USDA this week estimated world ending stocks outside China at 39.47 million bales, down 310,000 bales from the June forecast and down 5.07 million bales from 2014-15.
Meanwhile, U.S. upland loans outstanding fell 13,088 running bales to 698,333 RB in the week ended Monday, according to the latest USDA figures.
Upland cotton under loan included 95,537 RB of Form A issued to individual growers and 604,779 RB of Form G issued to marketing cooperatives or loan servicing agents.
Futures open interest expanded 3,813 lots Thursday to 225,587 lots, with DecemberΆs up 1,390 lots to 181,683 and MarchΆs up 975 lots to 27,053. Certificated stocks remained at 130,071 bales.
