950826

NY cotton

futures

higher

NEW YORK: NYCE cotton futures settled higher on scattered trade and speculative selling on Friday.

"The market has been bouncing around and can't find its direction in the near term," a trader said. "There is still a lot of uncertainty over the extent of crop damage in the South."

The trader expects the market to continue to bounce around until the USDA releases its monthly crop report Sept 11.

"You've had a little of everything today -- aggressive local selling, scattered trade selling and continued commodity fund buying," one analyst added. Volume was estimated at 10,000 lots.

Most-active December settled up 0.38 cent at 79.72 cents a lb after trading between 77.90 and 79.80 cents. Spot October finished 0.04 firmer at 81.50, with March 1996 up 0.15 at 80.55 cents. Deferreds gained 0.30 to 0.78 cent higher.-Reuter