Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was sharply lower Thursday on disappointing export-sales and renewed fears of recession. Those aggravated fears help to push the grains, the metals and the stock index futures down as well.    

Thursday's export-sales revealed a paltry sales number of 62,000 bales for last week, with weaker shipments. Primary buyers were Bangladesh (27,700), Pakistan (18,200), China (9,500) and Vietnam (5,900).    May cotton enters its delivery this Monday. Currently, its open interest stands at 7,405 contracts.    

Discounting Thursday's weekly export-sales, cumulative sales have reached 102.7% of the USDA forecast for the 2022-23 marketing year versus a five-year average of 101.4%.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will issue its latest trader's update. In last week's Commitment of Traders report, the managed-money funds had reduced their net short position to 14,773 contracts. Of course, Friday's data will be as of Tuesday's close and not include Thursday's sell-off.    

Heading into Friday's session, July cotton is off 3.62 cents on the week, down 2.54 cents on the month and minus 4.21 cents for the year.    

Thursday, May 2023 finished at 83.24 cents, minus 4.00 cents, July settled at 83.65 cents, down 3.56 cents and December 2023 ended at 83.50 cents, 2.92 cents lower. Estimated volume was 54,581 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com (c) Copyright 2023 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.