NEW YORK, March 29: NY cotton futures settled mostly firmer Friday on modest speculative interest as players said they were tweaking their positions ahead of release of the annual USDA planting intentions report on Monday.

May cotton climbed 0.54 cent to finish at 56.54 cents a lb, trading 55.60-56.74 cents. July rose 0.63 cent to 57.63 cents. Except for two contracts, the rest gained from 0.18-0.54 cent.

It’s just waiting for the report, said Frank Weathersby of brokers Affinity Trading in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in alluding to the annual USDA planting intentions report being handed out on Monday.

Cotton briefly probed the region below 56 cents, basis May, but then rebounded just as quickly to stay in positive territory for most of the session.

It’s mostly consolidation and positioning before the report goes out, a floor dealer said.

Cotton prices have pulled back after springing to a 2-year high earlier this month when it traded at just above 60 cents in the benchmark May contract.

A Reuters survey of industry players showed they expect US 2003 cotton sowings to reach around 14.4115 million acres, up from last year’s 13.96 million.

Market participants said total US cotton plantings could easily rise further by the end of spring in June because prices for alternative crops are not attractive, cotton insect eradication programmes are running well, and wet conditions in some states would make it too wet to plant grains like corn.

The overall outlook for cotton prices though would be negative since speculators have apparently decided to liquidate their hefty net long position in the market of 50 per cent.

Speculators had a laundry list of reasons to take profits, said the weekly report of market analyst O.A. Cleveland.

They had made good profits, the 50pc speculative long positions were suggesting the market should see a sell-off, and there was talk of export business experiencing a brief lull, he added.

Technicians said they believe support in the May contract is at 55.55 and 54.90 cents. They pegged resistance at 57.10 and 57.60 cents.

Floor sources said estimated volume stood at 12,000 lots, versus the prior tally of 18,067 lots. Open interest in the market fell 3,372 lots to 83,767 lots as of March 27. —Reuters