By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finished Thursday in something of a “take-a-moment” session. That is, after its strong performances during the first three days of this new year, the market elected to pause to potentially re-assess itself.

To that end, heading into Friday’s trade, spot March is up about 1.64 cents on the week. Cumulative sales for 2020-21 have reached 11.385 million bales, which is the highest level for this time of year since the 2010-11 marketing year. In percentages, sales have reached 78% of the USDA’s forecast versus a five-year average of 68%. However, with some 30 weeks left in the 2020-21 marketing season, sales need only total about 120,000 a week to meet the target.

Of course, that picture will change if USDA were to lower the 2020 crop and stoke exports higher as some traders expect. Friday, the Labor Department will issue its monthly jobs reports. Given the rise in COVID-19 cases during December, as well as diminished seasonal Christmas hirings, traders expect non-farm payrolls to come in at 71,000 jobs. This compares to December’s monthly number of 245,000 non-farm jobs created. Thursday,

March cotton closed at 79.76 cents, down 0.30 cent, July settled at 81.25 cents, down 0.29 cent and December cotton ended at 76.35 cents, up 0.14 cent; estimated volume was 29,412 contracts.