NEW YORK, July 27: NY cotton futures closed slightly easier Friday on exceedingly thin local pressure as the market quickly ignored data on annual US cotton consumption, with more sideways action expected next week.

Key December cotton dipped 0.12 cent to finish at 47.43 cents a lb, trading 47.01-47.75 cents. March lost 0.18 to 49.20 cents and the rest declined 0.10-0.19 cent.

There’s just nothing going on, said Joe Carney of brokers STA Trading Services in Memphis, Tennessee.

Some light speculative pressure pressed the market south, but the absence of news kept cotton in a tight band all throughout the day, floor sources said.

Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana, said business “was locally dominated” with the options pit “very quiet as well” in early trade.

It was difficult to get anything going since very few people paid attention to the consumption number, a floor dealer at the New York Board of Trade said.

Based on data from the US Census Bureau, the National Cotton Council of America calculated US annualized cotton consumption at 7.93 million (480-lb) bales which is at the top end of trade belief it would range from 7.8-7.9 million bales.

Sharon Johnson, cotton expert for Frank Schneider and Co. Inc. in Atlanta, said while the consumption figure can be seen as supportive for cotton prices, it does not appreciably change the US supply/demand equation.

In fact, the 7.93 million bale figure is only slightly above the estimate by USDA in its monthly supply/demand report that US cotton consumption will hit 7.8 million bales in 2002/03.

Traders said the market may well drift going into next week given the dearth of news. The much awaited USDA monthly production report will only be released over two weeks hence on Aug 12.

We may stay around here for a while, a trader said.

Technicians believe resistance in December delivery remains at 49.30, 50 and 50.50 cents. Support is seen at 47.50 and 47 cents.

Final volume touched 3,000 lots versus Thursday’s count of 3,825 lots. Open interest rose 494 lots to 75,375 lots as of July 25. —Reuters