By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

The cotton market cut its early morning losses Friday, going from triple-digit losses to double-digit losses. Earlier in the session, the market was trading well over 3.00 cents down, but a strong weekly export-sales report, plus a sharp rally in the Dow Jones, quickly changed the tone and tenor of cotton.

USDA reported weekly sales of 247,200 bales of cotton for the 2021-22 season. Moreover, shipments posted a marketing-year high of 350,000-plus bales.

The dominant driver for all markets this week was the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. To that end, some traders worry that consumption of commodities in general will deteriorate due to the European war, which is the biggest attack by one country against another in Europe since World War II. Typically, war is hugely disruptive to trade and commerce.

There were no deliveries against the spot March. It expires on March 9. Next week will begin a new month of trading, and to that, we note the six- to 10-day weather forecast indicates above-normal temperatures for the U.S. Cotton Belt, with below-normal rainfall for the Southeast, but slightly above-normal chances for West Texas.

May cotton was down 2.79 cents on the week, off 4.32 cents for the month, but remained up 7.46 cents on the year.

Friday, March cotton settled at 122.12 cents, down 0.47 cent, July ended at 115.34 cents, down 0.88 cent and December finished at 100.33 cents, 0.94 cent lower; estimated volume was 34,915 contracts.