December Cotton settled markedly lower Thursday as concrete bullish news is in short-supply.

The ICE futures traded a slow, directionless session Friday. Volume was estimated less than 15,000 contracts. Between the Mother Nature’s storms and USDA’s crop data, the Market was probably happy to reach the end-the-week. For the week, Cotton finished some thirty points higher.

Next week, the market will be looking for damaged assessments out of the Mid-Atlantic States, although the initial reports will be inaccurate. However, it is thought a 25% loss in North Carolina would tally about 200,000 bales. Also, the trade will be watching the status of topical storm Isaac.

December cotton closed 8183, up 32, March was 8214, up 17, and December 19 was 7761, down 13 points.