Cotton prices at 140-year high on bad weather
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Commodity Online): Floods in China and Pakistan, currency fluctuations and recovering demand pushed the price of cotton to a high unseen since the US civil war Friday.
Cotton prices have jumped 56 per cent since July and reached $1.198 a pound on the Intercontinental Exchange at the end of the week, a 140-year high, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
It took a blockade of southern commerce in the US civil war years to push cotton prices to nearly $1.90 a pound. The current surge is due to damaged crops in China and in Pakistan, which is the world's fourth largest producer.
A weaker dollar and uncertainty in equity markets pushed gold prices to a record $1,377.60 per troy ounce during the week, with gold setting at $1,372 per ounce Friday. Oil prices have jumped from a summer-long resting place between $72 and $76 per barrel to find a new plateau near $82 since late September on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Soft commodities -- sugar, orange juice, cotton -- are now following suit.
In the case of cotton, it's the suit, the jeans and the T-shirts that will be affected. Levi Strauss has warned that prices it charges will rise. In Atlanta, Bambeeno Cashmere Inc Chief Executive Officer Jenifer Fritz said the company would forgo cotton-cashmere blends from its spring line. "It's just not worth doing so," she told the Journal.
Cotton prices have jumped 56 per cent since July and reached $1.198 a pound on the Intercontinental Exchange at the end of the week, a 140-year high, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
It took a blockade of southern commerce in the US civil war years to push cotton prices to nearly $1.90 a pound. The current surge is due to damaged crops in China and in Pakistan, which is the world's fourth largest producer.
A weaker dollar and uncertainty in equity markets pushed gold prices to a record $1,377.60 per troy ounce during the week, with gold setting at $1,372 per ounce Friday. Oil prices have jumped from a summer-long resting place between $72 and $76 per barrel to find a new plateau near $82 since late September on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Soft commodities -- sugar, orange juice, cotton -- are now following suit.
In the case of cotton, it's the suit, the jeans and the T-shirts that will be affected. Levi Strauss has warned that prices it charges will rise. In Atlanta, Bambeeno Cashmere Inc Chief Executive Officer Jenifer Fritz said the company would forgo cotton-cashmere blends from its spring line. "It's just not worth doing so," she told the Journal.