Cotton Slides
Cotton net-longs tumbled 55 percent to 9,751 contracts. Inventories in China may reach 9 million metric tons this season, enough to cover the country’s supply deficit for the next six years, Joe Nicosia, the chief executive officer of Allenberg Cotton Co., said on Nov. 2 in Hong Kong. Futures fell 2.9 percent in New York last week.
In crude oil, net-long holdings fell 11 percent to 122,863 contracts, the lowest since June 19. Prices dropped to the lowest in almost four months last week amid speculation that the refinery shutdowns caused by Hurricane Sandy will add to ample supplies. Gasoline wagers fell 4.4 percent to 72,134 contracts.
Damage from Sandy last week may subtract 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point from U.S. gross domestic product in the fourth quarter as spending drops on services such as restaurant meals, according to Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A measure of 11 U.S. farm goods showed speculators trimmed bullish bets in agricultural commodities by 12 percent to 603,173 contracts.
Investors reduced their net-long position in corn by 16 percent to 236,382 contracts, the lowest since mid-July. Bullish bets on sugar dropped 28 percent to 32,981 contracts.
“We’re still in a perilous state here, even with some signs of stabilization lately,” Aegis Capital’s Crouch said. “Chinese metrics have been better, but Europe is still in a big slowdown. There’s uncertainty over what will happen after the U.S. election, and how close to the brink we’ll get.”
Bloomberg News
