By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was markedly lower Thursday amid tepid export sales and a meltdown in the Dow Jones. Sales were not much different than last week, but China canceled some 26,000 bales. However, the bigger bearish driver was the melting of the Dow Jones. The Dow fell over 800 points in one hour. The cause for the spill was linked to Dr. Anthony Fauci because he allegedly said a vaccine against COVID-19 by November was improbable. The Dow decline and the dollar to traded higher, which was seen as bearish by cotton traders.

Friday, the Labor Department will issue its monthly jobs data. Thursday, the jobless claims number came in less than expected, which was initially friendly to the financial markets. Expectations were for 995,000 unemployment claims, but the actual number was 882,000. Friday’s guess on jobs is 1.32 million.

Thus far, entering Friday’s trade, December cotton is down 0.72 cent weekly and 0.80 cent monthly.

For Thursday, December cotton closed at 64.28 cents, down 0.68 cent, March ended at 65.29 cents, down 0.59 cent and December 2021 settled at 65.18 cents, down 0.51 cent. The daily estimated volume was 30,445 contracts.