Cotton slips to near 4-month low on firm dollar, speculative selling
April 17 (Reuters) -ICE cotton dropped to a near four-month low on Wednesday, pressured by liquidation from speculators, while a strong dollar and downbeat sentiment in oil and grains markets also weighed on the natural fibre.
* Cotton contracts for May CTc1 fell 1.69 cents, or 2.1%, to 79.6 cents per lb by 11:48 a.m. ET (1548 GMT).
* The market is pressured because "we're still having liquidation of specs. The technicals and charts look terrible. There's no reason for anyone to buy anything," said Jim Nunn, owner of Tennessee-based cotton brokerage Nunn Cotton.
* "It looks like the path of least resistance continues to be down as it's been the last three weeks."
* The dollar index .DXY stayed near its highest level in over two months, making cotton more expensive for overseas buyers.
* Traders now await Thursday's United States Agriculture Department's (USDA) weekly export sales report.
* Last week's report showed net sales of 81,500 running bales for 2023/2024, down 4% from the previous week and 10% from the prior four-week average. EXP/COT
* In the grains market, Chicago soybean futures hovered above four-year lows as a strengthening dollar made U.S. exports less competitive in a market well-supplied with cheap beans from South America. GRA/
* Adding further pressure, oil prices slipped more than $1 as U.S. commercial inventories rose, while weaker economic data from China and dimmed prospects of interest rate cuts stoked worries about global demand. O/R
* Lower oil prices make polyester — a cotton substitute — less expensive.
Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar
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