As cotton reaches historic highs, Matt Pierce shares this news update on proposed purchase restrictions:
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) is proposing restrictions on large purchases of cotton, as prices for the fiber whiz past historic highs, spelling trouble for mills and apparel producers.
Cotton prices for March delivery Thursday hit $1.8122 a pound, a post-Civil War high.
In a notice this week, the exchange, which oversees the U.S.’s largest soft commodities trade, proposed requiring market participants to prove it was “economically appropriate” if they want to buy or sell more than 300 contracts, or 30,000 bales of cotton.
The move is thought to limit speculative trading, on which some of the market’s volatility is blamed.
The proposed measure, a rare intervention in the cotton market, is subject to approval by the exchange committee.
Also this week, the exchange said it was proposing increasing daily trading limits for the cotton contract, scaled according to its price. That measure requires the approval of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
-By Leslie Josephs; Dow Jones Newswires
