960423

Cotton lower

ahead of first

notice day

NEW YORK: NYCE cotton futures on Monday settled lower in the front months as speculators continued to liquidate long contracts ahead of first notice day Wednesday.

"We anticipate heavy deliveries Wednesday morning," said Sharon Johnson, analyst with Frank Schneider and Co Inc. She added a widening of the May/July spread suggested prices could dip lower over the next four sessions.

The new crop closed higher along with a several other commodities. Increases carried the Knight Ridder-Commodity Research Bureau index to new eight-year highs.

New-crop December ended 0.59 cent higher at 81.92 cents a lb after trading at a lifetime high of 81.95 cents.

Most-active July closed 0.11 cent lower at 85.23 cents, traded from 86.30 to 84.70 cents. May settled 0.30 lower at 83.93, while deferreds closed 0.60 higher to 0.30 lower.

Carl Anderson, cotton marketing specialist with Texas A & M University, said talk of imports through the fall, and easing exports, could continue to pressure the July contract.

He said higher imports could boost ending stocks for the current crop to more than 3.0 million bales. The U.S. Department of Agriculture put ending stocks at 2.9 million bales in its last report.

At the same time, China has already received the bulk of its orders for U.S. cotton.-Reuter