By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finished down Wednesday, despite a slightly positive supply/demand report. However, a massive meltdown in crude oil and related markets kept speculators at bay.

USDA issued its March World Ag Supply/Demand Estimates on Wednesday with zero changes to the U.S. data but another reduction in global cotton stocks. In fact, world carryout dropped some 1.74 million bales to 82.57 million. Yet, to reiterate, no one wanted to step up and buy with many outside markets “drowning.”

March cotton expired Wednesday at 121.67 cents. It leaves a “premium gap” to the May contract, which the market is likely to address in coming days.

Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EST, USDA will publish its weekly export sales report. Of late, the export pace has improved, thus Wednesday’s unchanged export category in the crop report was seen as a tiny bit negative.

Also Thursday, the Commerce Department will issue its monthly CPI report. The data should reflect a continuance of 40-year high inflation rate.

Wednesday, May cotton settled at 117.47 cents, off .50 cent, July ended at 113.21 cents, down .32 cents, and December finished at 101.69 cents, minus .38 cents. Wednesday’s estimated volume was 22,143 contracts.