ICE cotton futures briefly traded limit-up on Tuesday and hit near four-month highs on concerns of potential damage to the natural fibre crop in the United States following the strengthening of Hurricane Irma. Cotton contracts for December rose 2.85 cent, or 3.96 percent, at 74.73 cents per lb at 1633 GMT. The contract touched a high of 74.88 cents a lb, the strongest since May 17.

"Areas of the southeastern cotton growing regions of US area are likely to get some rain, while Florida could also see some bad weather due to Irma," said Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group. "I really don't believe the market would have traded limit-up if we hadn't had Hurricane Harvey. Harvey had a psychological impact," he added. Hurricane Irma strengthened into a highly dangerous Category 5 storm on Tuesday as it barrelled toward the Caribbean and the southern United States, even as Texas and Louisiana still reeled from Hurricane Harvey.

Copyright Reuters, 2017