Cotton Falls As Farmers Plan to Add Acres
02 September 2015 - 4:54PM
Dow Jones News
By Julie Wernau
Cotton futures fell Wednesday after a survey showed that farmers
intend to plant more cotton next year.
Cotton for December delivery fell 0.8% to 62.21 cents a pound on
the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.
The Farm Futures survey, conducted between July 17 and Aug. 3
showed that farmers plan to expand acreage by 10% in 2016 to 9.82
million acres, surprising some analysts who expected that beaten
down cotton prices would discourage plantings. Cotton prices are
down 5% year-on-year.
Analysts had anticipated a bumper crop this year because of
record rains in Texas, the largest growing region in the U.S.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture surprised some investors
last month when it slashed its production forecast for the upcoming
U.S. cotton harvest. Analysts were expecting this year's U.S.
cotton crop to be bigger than previously estimated. After surveying
field conditions, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics
Service found far more planted acres weren't going to be harvested.
Field surveyors also found plants that were producing lower yields
than anticipated, at 795 pounds per harvested acre, versus 819
pounds per acre estimated in July.
In other markets, coffee for December delivery fell 1.5% to
$1.19 a pound, cocoa for December fell 0.2% to $3,135 a ton,
October raw sugar rose 0.2% to 10.73 cents a pound and frozen
concentrated orange juice futures for November were higher, up 0.3%
to $1.2985 a pound.
Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 02, 2015 11:39 ET (15:39 GMT)
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