Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was lower Friday, despite a strong sales and exports number from USDA Friday morning. Combined seasonal sales tallied about 435,000 bales, with China as the top buyer. Additionally, weekly shipments were a marketing-year high. In addition, Friday's jobs data was much better than expected.    

Friday afternoon the CFTC will issue its traders update. The managed-money funds are expected to show an even lower net long position.    

Crude oil was higher Friday as OPEC decided to only slightly increase production targets. The planned increase won't alter the tight global supply. OPEC is going to boost output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) a month in July and August rather than 432,000 bpd as previously agreed.    

For the week, July cotton was down 1.24 cents; for the month it was off 0.80 cent, but it was up 30.30 cents for the year.    

For Friday, July cotton settled at 138.18 cents, down 0.93 cent, December closed at 117.90 cents, down 2.20 cents and March 2023 finished at 113.45 cents, 2.32 cents lower; estimated volume was 26,288 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.