By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finished the day moderately lower after its massive limit-down melt Thursday. Technically, the market was in grave overbought territory given it had just traded a 2 and 1/2 year high. Also bearishly influencing cotton down was a collapse in copper, lumber, gold and Chicago Grains.

Much of the collective decline was attributable to end-of-the-month squaring, plus the tiny uptick in interest rates. The U.S. dollar was markedly higher Friday as a result of the U.S. Treasury auction. Bidders jump the yield on a 10-year note above 1.50%, an unexpected move. This was a level some analysts were thinking could begin to draw money away from the Dow Jones. The next auction is next Thursday.

Friday afternoon the CFTC will release its commitment-of-traders report. Traders will not see the numerical effect on the speculator/commercial data until next Friday. At last count, the trend-following money funds were net long some 68,000-plus contracts.

May Cotton ended down 1.65 cents for the week, up 6.99 cents for the month and up 10.13 cents for the year. May Cotton closed at 88.83 cents, down 0.86 cent, July settled at 89.71 cents, down 0.66 cent and December cotton ended at 84.33 cents, down 0.45 cent; estimated volume was 52,647 contracts.