May 26, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 13,1423

NEW YORK, May 25: NYCE cotton futures settled marginally softer on Friday due to an early burst of trade sales, but modest speculative interest pared losses going into a long holiday weekend.

July cotton declined 0.36 cents to settle at 36.94 cents a lb, trading from 36.60 to 37.25 cents.

New-crop December tumbled 0.65 cent to finish at 40.92 cents. The rest sank between 0.35 cent and 1.10 cents.

The cotton market will be closed Monday for Memorial Day. Business resumes on Tuesday, May 28.

“The trade was the best seller out of the chute,” said Keith Brown, president of commodity trading firm Keith Brown and Co. in Moultrie, Georgia.

Cotton gapped down to its lows for the day from the opening bell, with options-linked sales adding to the pressure felt by futures, brokers said.

Traders said some of the early weakness may have been caused in part by the monthly US Census Bureau’s estimate of US annualized cotton consumption, which came in at 7.67 million (480-lb) bales, down from trade estimates that it would range from 7.8 million to 8.0 million bales.

Other analysts said the consumption figure is good since many US mills have shut down, limiting industry capacity in the process.

After its initial move south, the market gradually recovered on light speculative and fund short-covering, brokers said.

In other news, the Cotlook A index used by the trade as indicative of global cotton demand, increased 0.15 cents to 40.60 cents.

Technically, chartists peg resistance in the July cotton contract at 37.80 and 38.30 cents while support would be at 36.50 and 36 cents.

Floor sources said estimated final volume stood at 9,000 lots, from the previous count of 11,607 lots.

Open interest in the cotton market fell 2,000 lots to 65,941 lots as of May 23.—Reuters