December cotton finished lower Thursday amid weak old crop sales. Last week’s sales, reported Thursday, showed a mere 21,000 bales sold. Not only was that number a marketing-year-low, but it included some 85,000 bales cancelled by China. However, shipments were higher, and the distant crop year (2019-20) sales were strong. China did buy some 90,000 bales there. Yet, in the past we have seen countries buy distant amounts of cotton, only to eventually cancel those purchases. It is something akin to “hedging the hedge.”

Thursday’s 7600 settlement marked the lowest close for Spot December to date. With a steep bearish trend and negative psychologically, the market may have a poor weekly ending Friday. Estimated volume Thursday was 15,500 contracts traded.

In other news, U.S. stock markets are falling as the financial fear of rising interest rates. Friday the Labor department will report its jobs data for September. To reiterate, if that number is stout, then higher rates are to be expected. The month of October is a notorious time for the Dow Jones to spill, and that decline might bearishly effect cotton prices. To that end, the market traded in a very tight and tedious range.

We continue to watch a tropical formation unfolding the lower Caribbean. A year ago, about this time a similar event emerged, which ultimately turned into Hurricane Nate.

December cotton settled at 7600, down 46, March was 7682, off 38, December 2019 was 7548 down 24.