NEW YORK, Aug 3: NY cotton futures finished down and near session lows Friday on disappointed late long liquidation as players ran out the door when the market failed to generate topside momentum.

We just fell out of bed, said Sharon Johnson, cotton expert for Frank Schneider and Co. Inc. in Atlanta. She said players who had been looking for a push to higher territory sold futures when the advance failed to materialize.

Key December cotton tumbled 0.71 cent to end at 48.18 cents a lb, trading 48-49.10 cents. March sank 0.65 cent to 50 cents. Distant months shed 0.45-0.78 cent.

Follow-through interest and an early burst of trade buying conspired to hoist futures higher, but speculative pressure pushed fiber prices lower in light business, floor sources and brokers said.

Futures were dawdling in a narrow band for the most part until the last five minutes of the nearly three-hour session when all the speculators got out of the market, they said.

It was a real quiet day until the last two minutes or so when the specs ran out, a floor dealer said.

In other news, Memphis-based analytical firm Sparks Cos. was said to have forecast 2002 US all-cotton output at 17.7 million (480-lb) bales, trade sources said Friday.

USDA, in its monthly production report in July, calculated US cotton output at 17.5 million bales, down from the preceding month’s 17.8 million bales. Last year, the US produced a crop of 20.3 million bales.

Most analysts believe near-ideal growing weather, even in the usually drought-plagued farms of Texas, will likely spawn a larger US cotton crop this year. Texas is the top cotton producing state in the country.

USDA will release its next supply/demand data on Aug 12. This report will be scrutinized by the cotton trade because it will provide the first solid indication of the size of the US cotton harvest.

Technicians believe resistance in the December cotton contract remains at 49.50 and 50 cents, with support at 47.50 and 47 cents.

Estimated final volume touched 3,500 lots versus Thursday’s count of 4,503 lots.

—Reuters