NEW YORK, Dec 14: NYCE cotton futures ended near session lows on Thursday as options-related and fund selling knocked fibre prices lower, with the news of another bumper USDA cotton sales report unable to give the market any boost.

Key March cotton fell 0.96 cent to end at 35.15 cents a lb, just a hair above the session low of 35.10 cents. The session peak was 35.90 cents.

May slid 0.89 to 36.61 cents and the rest fell 0.25 to 0.97 cent.

Cotton prices recently rallied from falls to near 30-year lows last October, but futures are still struggling from abundant supplies and a recession spawned by the Sept 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

“You still have a general negative sentiment in the market,” said Joe Carney of brokers STA Trading Services in Memphis, Tennessee.

Carney said call and fund selling pressured futures, especially after the market failed to carve out topside room despite the amount of upland sales reported by USDA in its weekly export sales data.

USDA said new upland cotton sales in the week ending Dec 6 reached 260,800 (480-lb) bales, against trade expectations it would lie between 180,000 and 230,000 bales. Shipments touched a hefty 191,700 bales.

“Options were the best sellers today,” said Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana, adding trade accounts provided the market some support at the lows.

The opening was delayed for 30 minutes by phone problems. Cotton started on a weak note as small speculators pressed the market to lower territory, floor sources said.

“It just ground lower and we only got back up because some of the locals had to cover at the lows,” one said.

In the meantime, Stevens said the Step 2 marketing certificate used to help US cotton exporters “has now completely vanished and will take a minimum of four week to reestablish.”

Technically, traders put resistance for March cotton at 36 cents while support should lie at 35 cents.

Estimated final volume reached 9,500 lots compared with Wednesday’s count of 6,057 lots.—Reuters