By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

A recovering Dow Jones and strong export sales influenced the cotton market to trade higher Thursday. The Dow had fallen over 1000 points for three consecutive sessions, unnerving most financial and commodity markets.

Additionally, the cotton market was buoyed with bullish weekly cotton sales, with China as the dominant buyer. There had been some concerns that sales might be reduced, or even negative, as the trade rhetoric from the U.S. and China has been bearishly heating up.

However, out of last week’s sales total of 238,000 bales, China was a net buyer of 198,000. To some degree, one could say China’s actions are speaking louder than its recent words of ending the phase-one trade deal.

The cotton market comes into Friday up 1.58 cents on the week, 0.52 cent higher on the month and down 12.96 cents on the year, but that is an improvement.

July cotton closed at 57.85 cents, up 0.39 cent, December settled at 57.76 cents, up 0.44 cent and March ended at 58.62 cents, up 0.48 cent. Estimated volume was 17,874 contracts.