USDA said US net upland cotton sales amounted to 198,800 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), which fell below trade estimates the figure would range from 200,000 to 300,000 RBs. Last week, sales hit 566,700 RBs.
Keith Brown, president of commodity trading house Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia, said cotton futures may see "follow-through selling" over the data although the figures may have already been partly priced into the market.
The NYCE key May cotton contract closed 1.00 cent lower Wednesday at 70.16 cents a lb. Sharon Johnson, cotton expert with Frank Schneider and Co Inc in Atlanta, said the sales were "pretty disappointing." She added, "I would think the market would press lower today."
On an encouraging note, Brown said China remained a steady buyer of US cotton. Heavy buying by China sparked a rally in cotton which lifted prices last October to their highest since late 1995.
The Chinese have so far bought 4.090 million RBs of cotton, compared to 1.020 million RBs at this time last year, according to USDA data.
Separately, USDA said US cotton shipments reached 271,800 RBs. Dealers said that while the figure was in the upper end of trade expectations, US exporters would need to ship out more than 300,000 RBs to hit the USDA target.
USDA had projected US cotton exports in the 2003/04 marketing year (August/July) at 13.2 million (480-lb) bales, versus 11.9 million bales in exports in 2002/03.