By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market closed higher as traders viewed Friday’s deliveries as a positive event. The first day of deliveries for the December contract saw 405 contract tenders by a major industry merchant, but all were stopped by another larger commercial. Additionally, the market was in an oversold state, thus bargain buyers were out buying other futures months.

Earlier in the week, there was heavy liquidation in spot December as participants squared their positions. This retreat in the spot month also led to a price meltdown across the ICE Futures Complex. At its worst, the market was off some 2.50 cents for the week.

On Monday, USDA will report on the harvest progress of the 2019 Crop. We expect the national crop will some 75% done. Also, as a reminder weekly sales and exports will be delayed until next Friday, as the market will be closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Traders will also keep tabs on any weekend news regarding the U.S.-China trade situation. Although, talks have been stalled for some time, just this week Beijing has invited U.S. negotiators to return to China to refine the talks. So, for the moment, optimism for a deal seems to be outweighing pessimism. However, there are new tariffs are scheduled to be implemented on December 15.

Total open interest has precipitously dropped this month. On November 4, all open interest was 249,818 contracts, however, that number has been pared to 200,406 contracts.

Friday, spot December closed at 63.42 cents, up 1.58 cents, March finished at 64.85 cents, up 84 and December ended at 67.04 cents, up 0.48 cent. Friday’s estimated volume was 28,180 contracts.