Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

Cotton was lower Wednesday, in sympathy with the fears of other markets concerning the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates. Prior to the announcement, the stock indexes, the energies, the metals, and grains were all in negative territory.    

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point, plus indicated that it is not nearing the end of this hiking cycle. The move marked the eighth increase in a process that began in March 2022. The Fed is targeting the hikes to bring down inflation that, despite recent signs of slowing, is still running near its highest level since the early 1980s.    

Thursday morning, USDA will release its weekly export-sales data. For two consecutive weeks, the numbers have been mildly bullish, but, to reiterate, a recovering China should be very supportive to cotton, and other commodities.      

On Friday, the Labor Department will issue its jobs report for January. It is expected to show that 185,000 jobs were added during the month. The ADP National Employment report was out yesterday, showing that U.S. private payrolls rose by 106,000 jobs last month. That was far below expectations for January, which does suggest some cooling in the labor market.    

Wednesday, March 2023 finished at 85.61 cents, minus 0.61 cent, July settled at 86.93 cents, down 0.53 cent and December 2023, ended at 85.26 cents, 0.21 cent lower; estimated volume was 40,662 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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