Cotton prices are soaring at their highest levels in a decade, joining the rally in the broader commodities and raw materials market. Cotton futures advanced as much as 7.68 percent to fresh ten-year highs of $1.10 on the U.S. ICE Futures exchange Wednesday. This is the best price since September 2011. Although cotton eased by one percent in the early trading session Thursday, prices have surged about 40 percent year to date. The latest increase in this component of the raw materials market is mirroring the boom in lumber this past spring. Cotton’s rally is being attributed to several factors, primarily the extreme weather that decimated U.S. crops. Domestic cotton producers were forecast to plant 15 percent more acres of cotton this year because of skyrocketing prices. But heatwaves and droughts affected output, causing acreage levels in certain U.S. producing areas to shrink to their lowest levels in decades. Demand …