Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market posted yet another limit-down day amid a strong U.S. dollar and additional Chinese COVID-19 lockdowns.    

Despite a neutral jobs report, which sent the dollar lower, in the end, one report does not affect the totality of the market's fundamentals, thus the greenback rebounded. The Federal Reserve will meet late this month to decide on interest rates.   

China's zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy has resulted in a new and widespread shutdown. Allegedly some 40 million people are shuttered in place. That's 40-million people who are only allowed to buy essentials, and who are not out buying apparel.    

The market is closed Monday for Labor Day but will reopen Monday night. Next week's export sales are delayed until Sept. 15.    

December cotton ended 14.47 cents lower for the week, about 10.00 cents for the month, but up 10.56 cents on the year.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will issue its weekly commitment of traders report. Last week saw that the managed-money funds had bought roughly 6,000 contracts, upping their now net-long position to 51,000 contracts. For context, their greatest concentration of long positions was about 90,000-plus contracts earlier in the year.    

Weather-wise, the one- to five-day forecast calls for moderate to heavy rainfall across Texas, the Delta and the Southeast. The six- to 10-day and the eight- to 14-day outlooks indicate above-normal chances of rain for much of the Cotton Belt.    

For Friday, December closed at 103.21 cents, down 5.00 cents, March 2023 finished at 100.14 cents, down 5.00 cents and July 2023 settled at 94.45 cents, 3.32 cents lower; estimated volume was 36,779 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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