Revision of Regulations for Determining Price Quotations for Spot Cotton

The Agricultural Marketing Service is amending the regulations concerning designation of the spot markets used to calculate differences for tenderable qualities delivered against cotton futures contracts. The re-designated spot markets will better reflect the trading value of tenderable qualities. Presently, regulations provide for the Secretary of Agriculture to determine and designate spot markets from which spot cotton price information can be collected. Currently, there are seven designated markets that qualify under the Cotton Futures Act requirements and five of those are designated to determine differences for the settlement of futures contracts. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in an effort to better reflect market transparency, approved a request from the New York Board of Trade that the spot markets used to calculate commercial differences in Cotton Futures Exchange deliveries be re-designated. The requested changes were as follows: replace the South Delta quote with the West Texas quote; and replace the North Delta quote with the average of the combined North and South Delta quotes. Including West Texas quotes and combining and averaging North and South Delta quotes provides a more accurate reflection of cotton that is traded for cotton futures contracts.