CIJENE PAMUKA

CIJENE PAMUKA U.S. pamuk prodaja na tržištu - 18. veljače 1998. _________________________________________________________________ Ukupna prodaja na 7 tržišta u SAD-u 11,220 ( 11,243 prijašnji dan) Prosiječna cijena 1-1/16 inch cotton 63,09 centi (63,52 prijašnji dan) _________________________________________________________________ NEW YORK - pamuk zatvaranje - 18. veljače 1998. _________________________________________________________________ MJE. ZADNJA OTVA NAJ- NAJ- ZATVA- NAGODBE RANJE VIŠA NIŽA RANJE MAR8 65.45 65.80 66.05 65.35 65.40 65.43 MAY8 66.60 66.90 67.15 66.50 66.50 66.52 JUL8 67.90 68.20 68.30 67.90 67.90 67.90 OCT8 70.20 70.60 70.60 70.20 70.20 70.20 DEC8 71.60 71.90 71.95 71.60 71.60 71.60 MAR9 72.70 72.90 72.90 72.70 72.70 72.70 MAY9 73.40 73.40 73.50 73.40 73.25 73.30 JUL9 73.90 73.85 73.90 OCT9 72.85 72.80 72.85 DEC9 72.40 72.50 72.55 NYCE cotton ends down, March sinks to 3-week low NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - NYCE cotton futures sank for the fifth consecutive session Wednesday, with an afternoon round of fund selling pushing prices toward the day's lows, market sources said. Spot March cotton slumped 0.51 cent to 65.43 cents a lb, its lowest settlement since Jan 27 after ranging between 66.05 and 65.35 cents. Second-month May fell 0.61 cent to 66.52 cents, while the remaining months finished down 0.05 to 0.42 cent. "Funds got a scare last week and covered and now look to be coming back in on the short side," said Smith barney vice president David Brandon Jr. "I think they're intent on having May go to where March is." Last week's short-covering by speculators, including commodity funds, was reflected in the weekly spec/hedge report. The NYCE data showed a reduction in the speculative net short position to 13 percent as of Feb 13, compared with 16.5 percent the previous week. But a recent spate of bearish news has brought speculators back in selling the market short, Brandon said. "The market has been acting sick the last several days," he said. "I think it's preoccupied with talk of cancellations and news stories about problems getting cotton distributed in China." He added, "The market's trying to work a careful balance between supply and demand, with an ending stock figure below 4.0 million. Prices need to stay down to make significant progress in our export sales pace." Market participants also noted activity during the day focused on liquidation and rollover of March positions ahead of the spot month's first notice day on Feb 23. As of Feb 17, March open interest stood at a still relatively hefty 15,971 lots, down 5,703 lots from the previous session. Meanwhile, May open interest rose 2,145 lots to 24,333 lots. Volume Wednesday was brisk at an estimated 28,000 lots, compared with Tuesday's official tally of 24,339 lots. Due to the U.S. Presidents Day holiday on Monday, USDA's weekly export report, normally released on Thursday, will be postponed until Friday at 0830 EST. 191205 MET feb 98