NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures edged up on Tuesday after a drop in crop condition in the United States.

Cotton contracts for December settled up 0.54 cent, or 0.79 percent, at 68.83 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 68.29 and 68.97 cents a lb.

The US Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop progress report on Monday showed 55 percent of the crop was in good or excellent condition against 60 percent a week ago.

“The report shows that the crop remains a bit late in developing,” INTL FCStone analyst Andy Ryan wrote in a note.

“There was a large jump in the amount of the Texas crop that is in very poor condition, as it moved from only 1 percent to 4 percent. This could be a sign that abandonment is growing in the state with the largest dryland crop.”

Speculators reduced their bullish stance in cotton by 5,761 contracts to 15,060 contracts, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday. Since late May, they have been unwinding their net long position in the commodity to the smallest since April 2016.

“Although the speculators have fallen out of love with cotton, we believe that cotton prices under 70.00 represent value going forward,” Ryan said.

Total futures market volume rose by 14 to 13,072 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 160 to 215,821 contracts in the previous session.

Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of July 24 totalled 42,307 480-lb bales, down from 43,716 in the previous session.—Reuters