ICE IN NEW YORK Cotton futures gained 3% on Friday, with mills taking advantage of a sharp drop the day before to repurchase some of the natural fibre as demand prospects remain high amid a steady global economic recovery. By 10:25 a.m. EDT, cotton contracts for May had risen 2.35 cents, or 3%, to 80.79 cents per pound (1425 GMT). It fluctuated between 77.12 and 80.97 cents per pound.
The contract, on the other hand, is down 4.7 percent this week, the biggest weekly percentage drop since March 2020.
“Certainly, some mills may be buying, and we may have seen some global business done last night under 80 cents. Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Georgia, said, “The dollar has also gone down a little today.”
“The fundamentals of cotton are largely intact; however, the speculators were heavily long and were liquidated yesterday.”
Cotton prices dropped nearly 5% on Thursday, with poor export sales data and a stronger dollar weighing on the market.
Cotton lees became more costly for investors keeping other currencies as the dollar index eased from a four-month peak against main rivals. Meanwhile, the China branch of the cotton trade group Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) stated that it had found no evidence of forced labour in Xinjiang’s cotton production.
The total number of futures contracts traded dropped by 44,614 lots to 25,820 lots. Total open interest increased 52 contracts to 232,092 contracts in the previous session, according to data.
