NEW YORK, June 28: NY cotton futures settled higher Friday on light speculative fund and options-related buying as players tweaked their positions ahead of the USDA’s planted acreage report on Monday, brokers said.

Benchmark December rose 0.63 cent to finish at 58.83 cents a lb, moving from 58.05-59.30 cents. July climbed 0.80 to 55.50 cents. Distant months increased 0.50-0.65 cent.

People were evening up their positions before the numbers come out Monday, said Keith Brown, president of commodity trading firm Keith Brown and Co. in Moultrie, Georgia.

Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana said options-linked buying was also seen in the market.

A Reuters survey on Thursday showed that industry analysts on average believe 13.983 million acres were planted to cotton in 2003, down from the 14.25 million forecast by USDA in its planting intentions report last March. Last year, US cotton plantings stood at 13.96 million acres.

Drought, storms and hail across large swaths of the US cotton belt — particularly in Texas, the US Delta and Southeast — have dented cotton production in those areas.

Texas, the biggest cotton-producing area of the country, may lose more than 1.0 million acres of the estimated 5.8 million planted to cotton this season.

Brown said expectations of a number in the lower end of trade estimates, which would be 13.5 million-13.6 million acres, may have partly accounted for the strength in fiber contracts.

If the USDA number comes in under the average estimate of 14 million acres, the market is likely to get a boost and a number above the average could weigh upon the market, a daily report by brokers Flanagan Trading Corp. in North Carolina said.

Technicians see resistance in the December contract at 59 and 59.60 cents, with support at 58.06 and 57.60 cents.

Final volume reached around 3,000 lots, from the prior count of 3,512 lots. Total open interest in the cotton market fell 332 lots to 56,083 lots as of June 26.—Reuters