By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finally ended its lethargic Wednesday session slightly down. However, for hours on end, the futures were stalled in a seesaw pattern, as they traded both sides of Tuesday’s close.

Of course, a major reason for the listlessness was its anticipation for the Fed’s announcement on its fiscal policy. The headlines of that briefing indicated that the central bank would aggressively dial back its monthly bond buying. It also suggested there could be as many as three rate hikes next year.

Thursday, USDA will issue its weekly export-sales data. The last two weeks did reveal big sales, with strong participation from China. Of course, shipments continue to lag, which is the result of the supply-chain crisis. Although current season sales are below last year’s pace, they do remain above the five-year average.

The U.S. House just passed a legislation designed to punish China for its treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. The move will surely anger Beijing and add to rising tension between the world’s two largest economies. The vote in the House was 428-1 vote for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. A similar measure has already passed in the Senate. China has vowed to retaliate in some form.

Wednesday, March Cotton settled at 105.79 cents, down 0.11 cent, July ended at 103.14 cents, down 0.21 cent and December ended at 89.71 cents, 0.02 points higher; estimated volume was 14,818 contracts.