Cotton Declines From Four-Week High as Rain Aids Crop; Orange Juice Falls

Cotton fell from a four-week high as rain in the Mississippi River Delta region eased concern that dry weather will damage crops in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter. Orange-juice futures also dropped.

Rains were heavier-than-expected yesterday in southern and some central parts of the Delta, the second-biggest U.S. growing region after Texas, and more is expected through tomorrow, said World Weather Inc. in Overland Park, Kansas. The moisture will aid crops hurt by a drier-than-normal weather, data from the Mississippi State University Extension Service show.

“It has been too dry in the Delta, so rain this time of year will be welcome,” said Sid Love, the president of Joe Kropf & Sid Love Consulting Services Inc. in Overland Park, Kansas. Crop conditions indicate “we possibly have a big crop year, maybe even bigger than what the USDA has been saying.”

Cotton futures for December delivery fell 0.39 cents, or 0.5 percent, to close at 76.31 cents a pound at 2:30 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching 77.29 cents, the highest price for a most-active contract since June 30. The decline today was the first in six sessions, halting a 5.1 percent rally.

In the Delta region, rainfall today totaled 1.52 inches (39 millimeters) in Natchez, Mississippi, and 2.73 inches in Vicksburg, World Weather data show. From July 12 to July 19, Batesville, Mississippi, got 0.88 inches, or 65 percent less than a year earlier, according to the university extension service.

In another ICE market, orange juice for September delivery fell 1.2 cents, or 0.8 percent, to close at $1.455 a pound at 2:03 p.m. in New York, the first drop in nine sessions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Johnson in Chicago at Jjohnson133@bloomberg.net

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