Fashion
ICE cotton slips on macro concerns, crop progress
ICE’s most active December 2025 contract settled at 65.50 cents per pound (0.453 kg), down 0.90 cent or 1.36 per cent.
ICE cotton futures closed lower amid macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns, along with pressure from increased harvesting and good crop progress.
December 2025 contract settled at 65.50 cents per pound.
USDA reported 47 per cent of US cotton in good to excellent condition and harvest at 16 per cent.
CFTC data showed speculators raised net short positions, while export sales dropped sharply.
Market analysts said the market is currently in a wait-and-see mode, with many unresolved factors likely to influence cotton prices. Broad macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, combined with the possibility of a US government shutdown, are keeping all markets on high alert.
The Atlantic region is closely monitoring the potential impacts of Hurricane Humberto and Tropical Storm Imelda on agriculture and energy infrastructure.
After the market closed, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a crop progress report showing that 47 per cent of US cotton was in good to excellent condition for the week ending September 28, 2025—unchanged from the previous week but significantly higher than 31 per cent in the same period last year.
The US cotton harvest rate reached 16 per cent, compared to 12 per cent the previous week and 19 per cent in the same period last year, aligning with the five-year average of 16 per cent.
Data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed that speculators increased their net short positions in ICE cotton futures and options by 3,304 contracts to 68,812 contracts in the week ending September 23.
The USDA’s export sales report released last week showed that US cotton export sales for the current marketing year rose by 86,100 bales in the week ending September 18. This represented a 54 per cent drop from the previous week and a 53 per cent decline compared with the previous four-week average.
ICE data showed that as of September 26, deliverable No. 2 cotton contract stocks remained unchanged at 15,474 packages.
Currently, ICE cotton for December 2025 is trading at 65.32 cents per pound (down 0.18 cent), cash cotton at 63.50 cents (down 1.40 cent), the October 2025 contract at 63.05 cents (down 0.90 cent), the March 2026 contract at 67.23 cents (down 0.21 cent), the May 2026 contract at 68.66 cents (down 0.11 cent) and the July 2026 contract at 69.65 cents (down 0.15 cent). A few contracts remained at their previous closing levels, with no trading recorded today.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)