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Related Keywords: cotton industry, ICE cotton

ICE cotton for a second day on Wednesday inched up as trade buying carry on while dealers waited for government and industry reports due within the several days. Trading volumes were subdued with the benchmark March cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. closing up 0.12 cent, or 0.1 percent, at 85.52 cents a lb.

March prices traded in a tight range of less than one cent throughout the session, supported by the 20-day moving average but never breached the 14-day moving average.

Mounting worries over economic stability in emerging markets has kept markets volatile in recent weeks.

Related Keywords: cotton price, ICE cotton

ICE cotton ended its two days of losses as it eked out small gains on Tuesday, while stocks continued to rise as trade buying offset index and fund rolls ahead of the March contract expiry.

The benchmark March cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. finished up 0.39 cent, or 0.5 percent, at 85.40 cents a lb. Two days of selling had pushed prices to 84.76 cents on Monday.

Related Keywords: ICE cotton, US export sales

U.S. strong cotton export sales hit trader’s expectation and stoked worries over tight supplies in the world's top exporter, resulting in ICE cotton rise for the third consecutive day on Thursday. U.S. exporters sold 479,700 running bales of upland cotton in the week ended Jan. 23, down slightly from the previous week's report, which had shown the strongest sales since October.

The sales data were "very, very surprising" and "supportive" of the market, said Louis Rose, co-founder of Risk Analytics.

Many traders expected spot prices at near five-month highs would curtail demand.