By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The market was strongly higher Friday as USDA issued some fairly positive sales and export data. In fact, sales were a marketing-year high. Moreover, traders saw that China was a buyer of 83,000 bales, out of the 345,000 bales reported. That number, coupled with their 25,000 bales purchased of last week, has them buying a total of 100,000-plus bales. Naturally, the significance of that amount is China’s participation has deliberately and dramatically slowed her importation of U.S. cotton because of the tariff war.

Next week, USDA’s reporting will return to normal in that crop progress on Monday, and sales and exports on Thursday. However, December cotton will enter its delivery on Friday, November 22.

With the Dow Jones at new highs, and with USDA beginning to lower the 2019 crop, the prospects for higher prices are improving. To that end, if (and if is a big word), but if China comes to terms with the U.S., the market might move improve all the more into next year.

For the week, December cotton finished 0.14 cent higher. For Friday, December cotton settled 64.86 cents, up 0.59 cent, March ended at 66.69 cents, up 0.61 cent, December was at 68.81 cent, up 0.40 cent. Friday’s estimated volume was 41,342 contracts.