NEW YORK, Aug 31: NY cotton futures settled marginally softer Friday in quiet business, with most operators having taken off early for the long holiday weekend.

The cotton market will be shut Monday in observance of US Labour Day. Trading resumes Tuesday.

December cotton slipped 0.31 cent to close at 46.47 cents a lb, moving from 46.25-46.75 cents. March lost the same to 48.59 cents. Except for two contracts, the rest fell 0.25-0.34 cent.

On Thursday, the December contract traded between 46.15-46.90 cents, which is an inside day since dealings were confined within Wednesday’s 46.09-47.55 trading band.

The range tightened further Friday.

It was an inside day of an inside day, commented Frank Weathersby of brokers Affinity Trading in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Early speculator pressure ran into scale-down trade fixation buying, but volume was exceedingly light since most operators decided to call an early day and go off on the last of their summer vacations.

Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana, said that with about 90 minutes left to trade, volume stood at about 981 lots.

Trading is extremely choppy, (with the December contract) jumping back and forth between 46.50 to 46.75, said Stevens.

There are days when no one is really interested in doing anything in this market. This is definitely one of those days, a floor broker added.

Analysts said the market may move more sharply as the fall cotton harvest gets under way in the US and more news about crop prospects in other parts of the world filters into the cotton ring.

A daily report by brokers Flanagan Trading Corp. in North Carolina said rain is forecast over the weekend for the parched US Southeast.

The rain may aid late cotton, but the crop is opening rapidly and rain is not wanted on that cotton, Flanagan said.

Chartists believe resistance in December cotton will be at 47 and 47.80 cents, with support at 46 and 45.35 cents.

Estimated final volume was 2,200 lots against Thursday’s count of 4,749 lots. Open interest fell 357 lots to 70,244 lots as of Aug 29.—Reuters