NEW YORK, June 22: NYCE cotton futures finished mostly softer on Friday after late commercial and trade pressure cut short a rally which sent fibre futures surging to a one-year high in the previous session.

Spot July cotton was the only contract with gains for the day, rising 0.24 cent to end at 43.09 cents a lb, having traded between 42 cents and 43.95 cents.

It was the highest close for cotton on a spot basis since ending at 43.25 cents on June 25, 2001. On Thursday, the contract settled up the 3.00 cents limit at 42.85 cents.

Key December shed 0.14 cent to settle at 47.10 cents, trading between 46.75-48.20 cents. The contract also finished Thursday the 3.00 cents limit up at 47.24 cents.

Back months shed 0.16-0.60 cent.

“It’s hanging in there,” Joe Carney of brokers STA Trading Services in Memphis, Tennessee, said, adding the appetite of the funds to buy up fibre futures is close to being “saturated.”

Cotton has recovered since sinking last October to a 29-year low at 28.20 cents, basis the then spot December 2001 cotton contract.

The market suffered from a glut in supplies and soft demand caused in part by the recessionary impact of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C.

Cotton gapped to its lows for the day right at the opening bell as speculative fund accounts took profits from Thursday’s rally, floor sources said.

Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana, said the initial wave of choppy trading and trade sales gradually faded.

He said, “Prices moved to the positive side as specs, trade and option buying began to pick up.”

The advance then sputtered going into the close when late commercial and trade sales hit the market, dealers said.

The daily commentary by brokers Flanagan Trading Corp. in North Carolina said that if the market’s rally is being driven by demand, “any corrections are likely to be sideways moves rather than downward corrections.”

Technically, chartists said they believe resistance in the July cotton contract is now at 45 cents and 46 cents, while support is seen at 42 cents and 41.50 cents.

Floor dealers said estimated final volume reached 22,000 lots, from the previous count of 22,161 lots.

Open interest in the cotton market rose 1,689 lots to 62,186 lots as of June 20.—Reuters