ICE cotton drops for 3rd day on stronger dollar, weaker grain market

ICE cotton futures continued to decline for the third consecutive day on Thursday. A stronger US dollar discouraged cotton buying, denting demand from overseas buyers. Weakness in the US grain market and slow export sales also added pressure on US cotton.

The ICE cotton July 2025 contract settled at 66.69 cents per pound (0.453 kg), down 0.69 cent from the previous day. The contract has lost 179 points over the last three days. The December contract settled at 68.75 cents, also down 0.50 cent on the day. Other contracts ranged from 25 to 49 points lower.

ICE cotton futures fell for the third straight day, pressured by a stronger US dollar, weak grain markets, and slow export sales.
The July 2025 contract settled at 66.69 cents per pound, losing 179 points over three days.
Increased inventory and lower weekly export sales further impacted prices.
Analysts attributed much of the weakness to external factors.

The US dollar strengthened yesterday, making US cotton purchases more expensive for overseas buyers.

Trading volume on May 8 stood at 41,425 contracts, compared to 48,643 contracts cleared the previous day. Deliverable ICE cotton futures inventory increased to 17,137 bales as of May 7, up from 14,049 bales on the previous trading day, indicating more cotton coming to delivery.

Additional pressure came from weak CBOT corn futures, which fell due to favourable US planting weather, and declining wheat futures as Great Plains harvest prospects improved. According to market analysts, most of the weakness in cotton stemmed from outside markets like corn, as well as competition for acreage between cotton and corn in the southern US.

The USDA Weekly Export Sales Report showed that, for the week ending May 1, US cotton export sales for the current marketing year were 65,800 bales—39 per cent lower than the previous week and 50 per cent below the four-week average.

At present, ICE cotton for July 2025 is trading at 66.47 cents per pound (down 0.22 cent), cash cotton at 64.94 cents (down 0.69 cent), the October 2025 contract at 68.91 cents (down 0.49 cent), the December 2025 contract at 68.53 cents (down 0.22 cent), the March 2026 contract at 69.77 cents per pound (down 0.22 cent), and the May 2026 contract at 70.85 cents (down 0.05 cent). A few contracts remained at their previous closing levels, with no trading recorded today.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)