ICE Cotton Futures Settle Down 1% At $1.3875 A Pound

Cotton futures prices on the ICE Futures U.S. exchangefor December delivery, once the leader of the "soft" commodities, settled down1.43 cents or 1% at $1.3875 a pound--the only one of the softs to continuelower Monday after Friday's general commodities sell-off. March futures prices,however, settled up 0.02 cent at $1.342 a pound. Sharon Johnson, cotton analystat First Capitol Group in Atlanta, noted that neither the December nor Marchfutures contracts traded "limit down" on the day, an improvement from the endof the last week. Traders continue to roll out of the December contract intoMarch, she added, though confidence in the expectation of such high prices asseen last week--the highest since the end of the U.S. Civil War--appearedshaken by sell-offs Thursday and Friday despite continuing demand from Asia.