By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

In nearly an opposite image of Thursday’s session, the cotton market saw the spot March slightly higher, the July contract unchanged and new crop December fractionally down. Clearly, such action reflected more interest in spread trading than outright trading. The market has been on an upside tear since the start of the 2021, but with a recovering dollar and political turmoil, many traders are electing to remain sidelined Friday. For the week, spot March cotton is up 1.65 cents.

Into next week, the market will see USDA’s latest update on the supply-demand situation. Traders are anticipating a cut of at least a 350,000 bales off the 2020 crop. Such a revision would lower domestic carryout as well. Also next week the market will see weekly export sales. Traders hope to see improvements over this poor showing 70,000 bales sold this week. One reason is that this week’s business reflected the New Year holiday.

The U.S. dollar closed higher Friday. Currently, the buck is attempting to correct its heavily oversold situation. However, Friday’s poor jobs data played into the session as well.

Friday, March cotton closed at 79.77 cents, up 0.01 cent, July settled at 81.25 cents, unchanged and December cotton ended at 76.19 cents, down 0.16 cent; estimated volume was 25,451 contracts