OREANDA-NEWS. February 11, 2015. Cotton futures pared earlier gains and briefly turned negative on Tuesday after the US government raised its forecast for world ending stocks and production in the 2014/15 crop year in its monthly world supply and demand report.

The most active March cotton contract on ICE Futures US was up 0.37 cent, or 0.6 percent, at 62.37 cents a lb at 12:31 p.m. EST (1731 GMT).

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) raised its outlook for world production to 119.4 million 480-pound bales, up from January's projection of 119.2 million, and increased its forecast for world ending stocks to 109.8 million bales, up from 108.6 million in January.

The USDA increased its forecast for US exports to 10.7 million bales, up from 10 million in January, and lowered its expectation for US ending stocks to 4.2 million bales, down from 4.7 million in January.

"US numbers friendly, but negative if not bearish with world," Sharon Johnson, broker at Wedbush Securities in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote in a note following the release of the report.