ICE cotton futures fell in late-day selling after trading in positive territory for most of the day following a US government report that showed a drop in the percentage of exchange-grade cotton, stoking supply concerns. "You have a big hole in the world that the US needs to fill, and you have fewer tenderable grades this year," said Peter Egli, director of risk management with British merchant Plexus Cotton.

The report, released Friday morning by the US Department of Agriculture, showed 57.6 percent of US upland cotton was exchange-grade, down from 58 percent last week. March cotton on ICE Futures US settled down 0.29 cent, or 0.46 percent, at 62.83 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 62.75 and 63.42 cents a lb. The contract closed the week up 1.3 percent, its second-straight weekly gain and its sharpest weekly gain since the week ended October 16.

Total futures market volume fell by 1,109 to 20,290 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 451 to 174,966 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of November 19 totalled 59,015 480-lb bales, up from 55,859 in the previous session. The dollar index was up 0.58 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.21 percent. The Relative Strength Index in the most-active contract fell to 53.807.

Copyright Reuters, 2015