Cotton futures jumped to a record on concern that supplies will trail demand as adverse weather damages crops in China, the world's biggest consumer.

A three-day cold spell, forecast to last through today, may hurt plants, the China Meteorological Center said yesterday. Stockpiles in the U.S., the world's biggest shipper, will drop 8.5 percent in the year that began Aug. 1 from a year earlier, the Department of Agriculture said on Oct. 8. Cotton futures have surged 71 percent this year.

"The fundamentals remain bullish," said Keith Brown, the president of Keith Brown & Co., a brokerage in Moultrie, Georgia.
Cotton for December delivery rose 4.88 cents, or 3.9 percent, to settle at $1.2959 a pound at 2:40 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the commodity touched $1.305, the highest ever.

David Fuller's view Cotton's advance (monthly historic & weekly) is turning into a Type-1 ending as the current acceleration is unsustainable beyond the short term. However, there is still no evidence that the move is over and this will certainly filter through to the cost of cotton goods.