October 11, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 23, 1422

NEW YORK, Oct 10: NY cotton futures crumpled from further speculative pressure to finish at another 15-year trough, with more losses seen as likely given pathetic demand and bumper supplies of fiber in the world market.

The specs will keep selling it until demand changes, Frank Weathersby of Affinity Trading in Destin, Florida said, adding cotton will keep on carving fresh lows until we have improved consumer confidence.

December cotton eased to a new contract low of 31.20 cents before closing 0.39 cent down at 31.65 cents a lb. The session peak was at 31.90 cents.

October equaled the 1986 low of 29.50 cents before expiring 0.45 cent lower at 30.65 cents.

Back months retreated 0.53-0.85 cent.

Cotton futures were trading at 67 cents in August 2000, but the complex has been pounded since by soft demand and ever rising supplies of cotton from key producers like China and the United States.

Futures lost ground from the start, with general sales around the ring combining with option-related sales of sub-30 cent puts to drag the market south, brokers and floor sources said.

Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana said “sizable fund shortcovering” emerged in key December in the 31.20/30 cents area.

Analysts said the market may be also pricing in a bearish USDA monthly production report due out on Friday, which they feel may reflect lower levels of consumption due to a seeming global recession which in turn could bump up world ending stocks.

In its September production data, USDA reduced its estimate of world cotton consumption to 92.55 million (480-lb) bales from the previous month’s 92.60 while raising world ending-stocks to 42.73 million against 41.53 million bales in August.

Analysts said major support for the December cotton contract would now be the psychological target of 30 cents, followed by the 29.50 cents level reached on Tuesday by October prior to expiration.

Resistance in the contract was seen at 32 and in layers up to 35 cents. Dealers estimated final volume traded at around 9,000 lots, compared with the previous tally of 8,547 lots. —Reuters