By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

Thursday was a typical holiday session with erratic price swings and lower-than-normal volume. Early on, the session showed some strength as the Dow Jones was higher, the U.S. dollar was lower and there was no cotton bearish news over Christmas. However, with the market fully immersed in the middle of the Christmas-to-New Year’s move, volume is apt to continue to be thin.

The market is hoping 2020 will bring a signed trade deal with China, along with additional demand for U.S. cotton. Possible help for higher prices into the New Year may come from managed-money speculators. As an entity they have exited their bearish positions, and, as of last count, had turned fractionally positive. Thus, if news and numbers continue to unfold friendly for the cotton market, we suspect such speculators will increase their net long holdings as well.

Friday at 8:30 a.m., USDA will issued its latest exports-sales data. Hopefully by now subscribers know U.S. sales have been running strong. In fact, they are greater than the five-year average. However, once Friday’s report is published, action may become two-sided again, as traders ease into the last weekend of 2019.

Thursday, March cotton settled at 68.70 cents, unchanged, July finished at 70.58 cents, up 0.05 cent and December cotton ended at 69.94 cents, down 0.21 cent. Thursday’s estimated volume was 21,614, slightly above its Christmas Eve level.