ICE cotton futures hit a near-five month high on Thursday before settling marginally lower, pulled down by a bout of profit-taking. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US breached the key 75 cent level for the first time since August 9 and hit a session-high of 75.37 cents per lb. "It looks like a case of exhaustion, profit-taking and physical hedging ahead of the export sales data," said Louis Rose, an independent cotton trader and consultant with Risk Analytics in Memphis, Tennessee.

"This is probably going to continue unless we get some bullish news," he added. The contract has risen about 4.5 percent so far this week and is on track to register its biggest weekly gain in seven weeks. The market is awaiting the exports sales data from the US Department of Agriculture due Friday. The March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.3 cent, or 0.40 percent, at 73.78 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 73.61 cents and 75.37 cents a lb, a peak since August 9, 2016. Total futures market volume fell by 12,087 to 41,880 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 8,237 contracts to 255,395 contracts in the previous session.

Copyright Reuters, 2017