Alan Brugler - Barchart
Thu Aug 4,
After trading red on Thursday through midday, the front month cotton complex ended stronger past the thin October contract. October was still 24 points weaker on the day at the bell, but only had 120 contracts open as of the 8/3 settle. December printed another near 2 cent range on the day, and closed 19 points in the black.
Official June cotton exports were 1.697m bales according to the Census data. That was down 11% from May, but was 40% higher yr/yr. The full season’s total was marked at 13.774m bales with July yet to add. USDA’s July WASDE was looking for a 21/22 export program of 14.75m bales. The average July shipment would get there at 1.1m bales.
Weekly cotton bookings from the Export Sales report were reported as 112,406 RBs of cancelations – mostly via China (-95k) and Vietnam (-15k). The 2.52m RBs of unshipped sales is still more than double this time last year with 1 week of reporting left.
Cotton shipments reached 13.06m RBs through 7/28 – trailing last season by 12%. New crop cotton added 71k RBs to the books, now with 4.828m RBs. That compares to 3.13m last year and 3.67m from two year’s back.
The Cotlook A Index (old crop) for 8/3 was another 95 points higher to 113.25. USDA’s AWP for cotton dropped 15.04 cents to 89.44 cents/lb. Certified stocks were 5,813 bales on 7/29 after a 2,464 bale reduction.
Oct 22 Cotton closed at 100.12, down 24 points, Dec 22 Cotton closed at 94.62, up 19 points, Mar 23 Cotton closed at 92.33, up 28 points. (Source: barchart.com)