By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market took the opposite path Thursday, from its bullish run of Wednesday. Initially, Thursday’s decline started with poor sales and unchanged shipments. Sales were 108,000 bales versus last week’s 140,000 bales. China was not in the buying mix. Also, there was more rolling of positions out of December into March cotton. December’s first notice day will come around Thanksgiving.

In fact, the technical look of the charts may have the speculators thinking about instituting a net long position. Managed money traders have been net short, and at times record net short, the cotton market since last Easter.

Currently, much of the cotton belt is experiencing wet and overcast weather, which has halted the harvest. However, into next week, the weather patterns are looking cold and clear, suggesting the harvest will resume full-bore. Also next week, USDA will issue its latest supply-demand data. Although some traders believe the crop has been overstated, currently there is little evidence the crop will be dramatically reduced.

The U.S. and China may announce a new meeting place as early as next week. Negotiators from both side are continuing to dialogue via telephoning conferencing, while other trade officials are indicting they are working on a new site for a face-to-face meeting sometime this year.

For Thursday, December Cotton closed at 64.44 cents, down 1.26 cent, March ended at 65.88 cents, down 1.01 cent and December 2020 closed at 67.53 cents, down 0.35 cent. Thursday’s estimated volume was a whopping 67,954 contracts, the highest since June 10.