By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was wickedly lower Thursday as the weekly export-sales data proved disappointing. Although shipments did show some strength, sales were off. However, China appeared as the top buyer. Additionally, in a move to maintain market integrity, the ICE raised margin requirements necessary to trade the futures from $2600 to $3500 per contract. Increasing margin minimums is typically considered negative to bullish positions as it takes more funds to hold the same size position, and they are retroactive.

Friday morning, the Labor Department will issue its monthly jobs data for October. Expectations indicate some 450,000 non-farm jobs were created last month. Last month’s report, reflecting September, showed a mere 194,000 jobs were created. The unemployment rate is expected to be 4.7%, versus last month’s 4.8%.

OPEC+ said Thursday that it will rollover its August program to gradually increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day each month. Oil prices have recently hit their highest levels since 2014, and crude-importing countries are feeling the pain. The Biden administration had requested the oil cartel to increase its daily crude production rate to 800,000 barrels per day, but that plea fell on deaf ears.

For Thursday, December settled at 116.46 cents, down 2.36 cents, March ended at 112.91 cents, down 2.53 cents and December 2022 ended at 91.76 cents, 0.84 cent lower; estimated volume was 46,135 contracts.