NEW YORK, March 2: NY cotton futures finished fractionally firmer Friday on minor buying by small speculators in a market struggling from a dearth of news, with more of the same expected next week.

It’s drifting, said Frank Weathersby of brokers Affinity Trading in Destin, Florida.

Cotton remains mired in a range of 34 to 39 cents, basis active May, with little on the horizon seen nudging the market out of this band.

March rose 0.85 cent to finish at 34.55 cents a lb, moving from 34.50-34.80 cents. Most-active May added 0.18 cent to 36.06 cents, dealing 35.55-36.20 cents. The rest were 0.10 to 0.35 cent firmer.

Floor sources said cotton crawled to its high for the day on small-lot purchases and then was sent in the other direction by locals hunting for leads.

Even the bigger locals are staying on the sidelines. It’s been dead, one floor trader said.

Late local buying then shove cotton into marginally firmer ground, dealers said.

Fundamentally, the market took note of news that William Dunavant Jr., chief executive of top cotton merchant Dunavant Enterprises, had forecast the May cotton contract trading from 34.50-38.50 cents.

Dunavant also trimmed his estimate of US 2002 cotton plantings to 14.46 million acres, from an estimate of 14.6 million acres at a major cotton conference in January.

The market did not even budge after Dunavant’s speech. It just had very little incentive to do anything, a trader said.

Technicians feel support in the May cotton contract would be at 35.70 cents, with resistance calculated at 36.70 cents.

Estimated final volume stood at 4,000 lots, from the prior tally of 6,834 lots. Open interest rose 387 lots to 63,537 lots as of Feb. 28.—Reuters