Position squaring, profit taking and some light hedging were the dominant items on Friday. Of course, the month of August is the crucial time for the crop’s development, thus Mother Nature must play its critical role. Currently, the length of the Cotton Belt reflects all sorts of adversities from water-logged fields to some areas still dry. To that end, traders are anticipating Monday’s crop condition data.

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will issue its weekly status report on the market’s various participants. Expectations among traders is to see the managed-money funds’ net long position to be slightly increased.

A key report next month will be the August WASDE from USDA. Last month, domestic carryout was increased, but ending stocks for the world were reduced. As the world recovers from COVID-19, it is widely thought foreign buying will reemerge to support higher prices.

The U.S. dollar was higher Friday, despite Wednesday’s bearish drubbing. The greenback had fallen on bearish comments from the Federal Reserve about delayed hiking on interest rates.

For the week, December cotton was down 0.13 cent, but up 4.63 cents on the month and up 14.65 cents for the year.

For the day, December settled at 89.39 cents, down 0.92 cent, March ended at 89.07 cents, minus 0.85 cent and December 2022 ended at 80.79 cents, down 0.34 cent; estimated volume was 20,374 contracts.