By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market finished disappointingly slightly higher Friday, given Thursday’s shot-to-the-moon move. Thursday saw the market ignore certain bearish fundamental data, opting to rally on conciliatory trade words between the U.S. and China. To that end, President Trump decided to delay the implementation of his October 1 tariffs till mid-month, while Chinese responded with inquiries into U.S. agricultural products, namely swine and soybeans.

Cotton took those hopeful gestures as a green light and zoomed to nearly limit-up on monster volume. However, Friday’s muted trade occurred on about one-half the volume.

For the week, December Cotton settled 3.70 cents higher, but most of that gains came on Thursday’s run. Traders will be attuned to any weekend tweets and/or news concerning the outlook to the U.S.-China trade meetings.

Traders will also be watching the tropical depression now building in the Caribbean. It is likely to come of the east coast of Florida, eventually as a category 1 hurricane. However, as with all hurricanes, it will have a mind of its own.

Monday will bring new crop condition and crop harvest data. Early picking in occurring across the deep South. However, late-planted cotton could still use a rain for better development. Additionally, next week’s weekly sales and exports is likely to be a bearish bust as well. Last week’s sales of 74,000 with China cancelling 20,000 bales, was taken as a negative.

For Friday, December cotton closed at 62.28 cents, up 0.07 cent, March finished at 62.78 cents, up 0.20 cent and December 2020 closed at 65.06 cents, up 0.41 cent. Estimated volume was 40,249.