By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market started its Friday sessions higher and ended it that way. Bullish drivers included the on-going technical trend, the net-long specs position, and the fact spot December is fading away, bringing the March contract to the forefront. The latter reference suggests the cotton market is beginning to transition away from “supply futures”, such as October and December, to the “demand futures,” or March, May, and July.

The hope that vaccines will soon mitigate the curse of COVID-19 is also a definite underlying bullish fundamental. Certainly, the world is looking forward to the day when the ordinary events like traveling, dining, and shopping return to a pre-COVID routine.

Next week, the cotton market will see crop harvest progress on Monday. The market will be closed on Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving Day, which will delay weekly exports and sales to Friday.

March cotton was up 2.50 cents for the week, up 3.12 cents for the month, and was up 2.16 cents for the year.

Friday, March cotton closed at 72.94 cents, plus 1.29 cents, Jul 21 settled at 74.40 cent, up 1.13 cent, and red December cotton ended at 70.57 cents, 0.25 cent higher. Friday’s estimated volume was 28,223 contracts.