The initial report response has front month cotton futures 63 to 69 points in the black. New crop cotton yield was cut to 910 lbs/acre. USDA revised new crop production 1.02 m bales lower as well, to 17.06m bales. USDA also lowered new crop stocks to 7.2m bales on the crop reduction. After some demand cuts, the Stx/Use ratio fell back 1.9% from August to 42.1%. USDA did maintain the average farm price of new crop cotton of 59 cents/lb. The first half of Sept cotton ginnings were down 20% yr/yr at 287,750 RBs. USDA’s Export Sales report had cotton bookings at 126,671 RBs for the week ending 9/3. New crop exports total 1.482m RBs through the first 5 weeks of the MY, which is an all-time record. Of the accumulated shipments, China has been the destination for 51%. The Cotlook A index for Sept 9 was 10 points higher to 69.90 cents/lb. The new AWP for cotton is 67 points lower @ 49.77 cents/lb, with a 2.23 cent LDP.

--- provided by Brugler Marketing & Management