NY cotton futures move sideways this week

Over the last 25 sessions, dating back to June 28, the December contract has settled no lower than 69.51 cents and no higher than 72.94 cents, giving us a boring trading range of just 343 points, which signals that neither the bulls nor the bears are currently in control of the market. 

When we look at December’s chart over the last two-and-a-half months, we notice that this contracting price range has been forming a triangle pattern, in this case a symmetrical triangle, marked by lower highs and higher lows.

Since the trendlines in a triangle are converging, it is just a matter of time until the market finally breaks out to either side. Although triangles are sometimes reversing a trend, they are typically seen as continuation patterns, meaning that the breakout usually occurs in the direction of the prevailing trend, which is currently down.

More specifically, a break below 70 cents in December would violate this triangle pattern to the downside and probably lead to a retest of support in the mid-60s, while a move above 73 cents would signal a reversal to the upside and likely invite a decent amount of new spec buying.

From a fundamental point of view there seems to be plenty of support for US cotton at the moment. Today’s US export sales report was surprisingly strong considering how quiet the market has been lately. For the week ending July 26, net sales of Upland and Pima amounted to 221’800 running bales, of which 39’700 running bales were for prompt shipment.

Once again there were 19 markets participating in the buying last week, which shows that there is broad-based support of US cotton at current levels. Shipments were constructive as well at 310’500 running bales, bringing total exports for the 2011/12-season to 11.65 million statistical bales, with five days to go in the marketing year. This means that US exports will surpass the current USDA estimate of 11.6 million bales by some 200’000 bales, thereby lowering beginning stocks to around 3.1 million bales.

As we alluded to last week, it seems that the US supply situation will remain extremely tight until new crop starts moving in. With around 4.4 million bales in export commitments, most of which are for nearby shipment, and with another 0.9 million bales needed for domestic mill use over the next three months, some shippers may have difficulty in finding cotton for their commitments.

Maybe merchants became too cautious in securing supplies when prices were falling and sales contracts were non-performing, and are now finding themselves with some holes to fill. It looks as if the certified stock might be used for this purpose, as it has dropped by 96’041 bales since July 10, amounting to just 36’049 bales as of this morning.

For the futures market this tightness in the cash market is relatively inconsequential, since October has hardly any open interest (just 358 contracts) and December should have plenty of new crop available by the time its delivery period rolls around.