Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

Cotton was moderately higher Friday, supported by strong outside markets. The Dow, the Chicago Grains, the energies and the metals were all materially up. To a lesser degree, there was some monthly squaring as traders positioned themselves for a new month. Early on, the new month will include a rate hike from the Federal Reserve and new supply demand numbers from USDA.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will issue its Commitment of Traders report, At last count, the managed-money funds were net short some 7,300 contracts. The cutoff time for gathering data is Tuesday's close, thus its impact is always lagging.    

There were zero deliveries on the May futures. That contract expires on Monday, May 8.    

Crude oil prices gained about 2% Friday, as U.S. data showed crude output was declining while fuel demand was growing. Earlier, the energies were down on worries of a looming economic recession, and an expansion of the banking crisis. However, the EIA reported that domestic crude production fell in February to 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd), its lowest since December 2022.    

Friday, May 2023 finished at 79.03 cents, up 0.40 cent, July settled at 80.80 cents, up 0.40 cent and December 2023 ended at 81.10 cents, 0.48 cent higher. Estimated volume was 28,742 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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