By Keith Brown, DTN Cotton Correspondent
The cotton market traded sharply higher Tuesday as speculators covered their short-sold positions amid a strong Dow and weaker dollar. The Dow held fairly strong all day as earnings from 3M and recovering crude oil encouraged shorts across several markets to “buy up.”
At one time, July cotton was up well over 2.00 cents higher, but late day profit-taking and farmers fixation selling resulted in the market giving up half its gains.
Spot May cotton remains in its delivery period, but scant notices have been assigned. May futures expire on May 6.
The next news for cotton comes this Thursday with weekly export sales. Last week saw a fractionally positive sales number, but the market remains on pins-and-needles as to possible future cancellations.
For Tuesday, spot May cotton closed at 56.18 cents, up 2.25 cents, July ended at 55.78 cents, up 0.77 cent and December finished at 57.72 cents, up 0.69 cent. Estimated volume was 23,883 contracts.