Bulls fail to create upside momentum in NY cotton futures

The big story this week was the abundant rainfall in West Texas, with some stations receiving up to six inches. While this rain event increases the yield potential of the standing crop, it comes too late for many dryland acres that have been canceled out by insurance adjusters in recent weeks.

It is therefore difficult to ascertain what the impact of these rains will be in regards to increased production potential, but our guess is somewhere north of half a million bales.

Other than Texas we also keep hearing encouraging news out of India, where traders see a bumper crop in the making that may exceed last year’s output by 10 percent or more. The USDA just raised its target for the Indian crop by a million statistical bales in its latest report and this number may prove to be conservative.

Before the bears get too excited about all these rosy production estimates, we would like to add that consumption in India is apparently making great strides as well, with retail sales of cotton products showing consistent growth, which should mitigate the impact of a record crop to some degree.

While the improved production outlook in Texas and India are valid reasons to temper bullish expectations, we disagree with those who cite the slower pace of US export sales and Chinese imports as signs of a weakening market!

Sure, US export sales of 100’600 running bales for Upland and Pima are not what they used to be a few months back, but that has more to do with a lack of available cotton than weak demand. The US started this season with total supply of 20.7 million statistical bales, of which 14.0 million bales have so far been committed for export, while domestic mills will use up 3.4 million bales by the end of July.

This leaves theoretically 3.3 million bales available, but we need to reserve at least 1.0 million bales for domestic mill use before new crop arrives, and then there are export commitments of 2.2 million bales on the books for shipment August onwards, of which an estimated 1.5 million bales will be supplied from existing stocks.

If this assumption is correct, it would leave only around 0.8 million bales of current crop cotton for sale, certified stocks included. Seen in this light, the current pace of US export sales isn’t that bad after all!

The same goes for weekly shipment, which were seen as “disappointing” by some analysts at just 139’800 running bales, giving rise to speculation that something may be wrong on the US export front. Again, we need to look at it in the context of what is still there to be shipped! The latest report shows that only 1.26 million running bales of Upland and Pima cotton have yet to be exported, which even at this slower pace will take just 9 weeks to accomplish.