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Cotton futures

settle higher

NEW YORK: NYCE cotton futures settled higher on Wednesday, buoyed by good speculative buying as commodities in general reached new highs, traders said.

"We had very strong speculative fund type buying and very heavy trade selling," said analyst Sharon Johnson, cotton analyst at Frank Schneider and Co.

Several contracts made fresh recent highs, with the December contract making a new high. Volume was estimated at 15,000 lots, compared to yesterday's official 10,512 lots.

Most-active July cotton settled 0.32 cent higher at 88.40 cents a lb, traded 90.10 to 88.35 cents. May ended 0.47 cent higher at 87.37 cents.

"But this was a poor close, down substantially from the new highs," Johnson said.

An "extremely neutral" USDA monthly cotton report issued today will not be enough to avoid the market closing lower Thursday, Johnson said.-Reuter