By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market posted new highs for the year Wednesday as USDA issued some very positive supply-demand information. The government lowered the 2021 crop some 660,000 bales to 17.62 million. The agency also cut exports, a legacy of the supply-chain crisis. However, the bottom line is domestic ending stocks were slashed 2 million bales to 3.20 million. World carryout was also lowered 720,000 bales to 85.01 million bales.

The U.S. Dollar Index was sharply lower Wednesday, another cotton positive, as the CPI recorded the highest move-over-move jump since 1984. Obviously, the data continues to show that inflation is not waning for the U.S. economy.

Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EST, USDA will issue its Weekly Export Sales and Shipments report. Last week saw sales of 143,200, which was down 26% weekly. Top buyer was China with some 47,000 bales. Exports then were 104,900 bales, down 35% on the weekly.

Wednesday, March cotton settled at 117.64 cents, up 1.62 cents, July ended at 112.51 cents, plus .90 cent, and December finished at 95.34 cents, 1.07 cents higher. Wednesday’s estimated volume was 39,485 contracts.