July 1St NYBOT: Cotton Futures Closed Nearly Flat, Supported By Textile Mills.

According to the news of New York on July 1st,

The most active December cotton contract rose 0.07 cents or 0.1%, at 76.45 cents a pound.

First Capitol Group senior cotton analyst Sharon Johnson said cotton futures trading range was wide, initially rising overnight, driven by textile mills, and speculators took the price of the previous trading day as a buying opportunity.

After that, the market fell, partly because of the speculator.

Johnson said the market was down because people realized that production in the United States is expected to be very good, partly because the US Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that the estimated increase in cotton planting area is expected.

The US Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday that the total area of US cotton sown is 10 million 900 thousand acres, an increase of 19% over last year and higher than its estimated 10 million 510 thousand acres in the March planting intentions report.

In addition, Boyd Cruel, Senior soft goods analyst at Vision Financial Markets, said weather conditions had been ideal for cotton crops so far.

Meanwhile, some analysts say cotton futures are mostly depressed by worries about the global economy, like crude oil and copper.

China's official purchasing managers index declined from 53.9 in May to 52.1 in June.

Last week, the United States increased the number of jobless claims by 13000 to 472 thousand, with analysts predicting a 2000 loss.

In June, the US ISM purchasing managers index dropped from 59.7 in May to 56.2, after analysts expected to decline slightly to 59.

Johnson says,

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Other traders reclaim the empty head.

Johnson said cotton futures were also stable in some technical chart support areas.

The December cotton contract touched a low point of 75.17 cents, not far from its 200 day moving average of $74.97.

However, another technical indicator indicates some weak trend.

The market closed for second consecutive trading days less than its 50 day moving average of 77.72 cents.

In addition, hurricane Alex weakened and evolved into a tropical storm on Thursday, which failed to trigger worries about the supply of cotton.

The US weekly cotton export report also failed to provide clear guidelines for the market.

Meanwhile, cotton contracts closed down 1.38 cents, or 1.7%, to 81.22 cents a pound in July.

Dealer data showed that ICE cotton inventories were reduced by 41843 packages on Wednesday.

Cotton futures increased 209 positions on Wednesday, totaling 164188.

According to the exchange data, as of Thursday 1830 GMT, cotton futures volume is expected to be 19878 hands.

In options, there are about 3501 call options and 3211 put options.

Below is the closing price:

Closing trading range

July 81.22 -1.38 80.32-82.75

December 76.45 +0.07 75.17-77.26