Cotton climbs on signs of increasing demand; orange juice rises

Cotton futures rose, snapping the longest slump in eight months, on signs of increasing demand for supplies from the U.S., the world’s top exporter. Orange juice also advanced.

In the week to May 16, export sales of upland cotton jumped 37 percent from a week earlier, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. This month, U.S. consumer confidence rose to the highest in more than five years, a Conference Board report showed today.

“The sales have been very good,” John Flanagan, the president of Flanagan Trading in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “There’s also some confidence that we’ll sell all the cotton that we want to sell.”

Cotton for July delivery rose 0.3 percent to 81.75 cents a pound at 10:37 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The price dropped in the previous five sessions, the longest slump since mid-September.

Orange-juice futures for July delivery climbed 1.2 percent to $1.4905 a pound. Through May 24, the price gained 26 percent this year.