"The funds have got stuff down their throat. ... They are all long around 74-75 cents and have to liquidate. And then we have outside forces like crude oil prices," he said. Oil prices fell about 3 percent to a 10-month low in heavy trading on Wednesday.
Cotton contracts for December settled down 0.8 cent, or 1.16 percent, at 68.17 cents per lb. The contract traded within a range of 68.13 and 69.67 cents a lb. Prices hit a low of 68.13 cents, the worst since October 12, 2016. "We thought the December would hold around 68.50 and might get a pop-up somewhere. But looks like it will not. If we take out 67.80, we might see a support around 65.50," Moss said. Chances of bulk new crop harvest in major growing regions across the world are also pressuring prices, traders said.
US Department of Agriculture data on Monday showed that 94 percent of cotton crops were planted in the United States by the week ended June 18, slightly up from 92 percent in the previous week. It rated 61 percent of the US cotton crop in good to excellent condition, compared with 66 percent a week ago. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Cindy weakened slightly on Wednesday afternoon as it headed toward landfall on the Texas-Louisiana border, but it still threatened to bring flash floods from Texas to Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"Looks like we have got a good shot of some rains in west Texas and that should help the cotton," Moss said. Total futures market volume rose by 3,742 to 26,167 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,576 to 206,774 contracts in the previous session. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 1.32 percent. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of June 20 totaled 483,106 480-lb bales, up from 480,461 in the previous session.