By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

The cotton market struggled all session to slough off bearish export sales, but did close lower Thursday.

The cotton market struggled all session to slough off bearish export sales, but did close lower Thursday. Thursday morning USDA reported negative old crop sales of -10,000 bales, but China was nowhere to be seen. New crop sales were positive, but numerically they were off as well. Initially, the market traded down, but was able to trade “scratch” by midday. Still into the close, with a falling Dow Jones, the cotton futures refused to maintain a positive close.

Going into its Friday morning trade, July cotton is trading 2.10 cents higher on the week, as well as 2.10 cents up on the month. For the year, prices remains down a little over a 10.00 cents, but even that is a slight improvement.

Friday, the Labor Department will report on the nation’s jobs data. Hopefully, the trade and the economy will begin to see the worst of coronavirus results began to fade.

Next week, the cotton market will see fresh monthly supply-demand from USDA on June 11, followed by option expiration for the July contract on Friday, June 12.

July cotton ended at 60.00 cents, down 0.48 cent, December closed at 59.58 cents, down 0.15 cent and March settled at 60.22 cents, down 0.16 cent. Estimated volume was 30,076 contracts.