By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent
Cotton closed fractionally higher Friday, although for the week the market was down 2.33 cents. The market started the week on a sour note as Monday saw a steep 2.00-cent decline. At that moment, the market was revisiting the 2 million-bale increase from USDA’s world supply-demand numbers.
Of course, there were also high hopes for a U.S./China trade deal or something close to that, but such was not to be this week. However, both sides agreed to meet next week in Washington. Thus, the cotton market has one eye on the talks and the other eye on the March 1 deadline.
Monday is a federal holiday, President’s Day, so the cotton market will not trade. That also means weekly sales and exports will be delayed until Friday. Additionally, Friday is the first notice day for the March cotton’s delivery. Interestingly, the March-May spread posted new lows yesterday.
There was open optimism this week over the U.S./China trade war in several peripheral markets. The Dow Jones, crude oil, copper and grains were obviously higher in response to the potential for a trade deal or at least improvements in U.S./Chinese trade relationship. Hopefully, this budding optimism will spill into the cotton futures soon.
March cotton settled today at 70.22 cents, up 0.09 cent, July was at 73.24 cents, up 0.17 cent and December closed at 72.80 cents, up 0.09 cent. Friday’s estimated volume was 31,200 contracts traded.
