By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent
The cotton market experienced an early Wednesday morning bullish rush as traders feared Texas would suffer an early weekend frost event. As it stands, about 10% of West Texas and 100% in the Panhandle will be affected by frost that’s forecast for Friday and Saturday.
Forecasters say October 11 will be the coldest day, covering the Panhandle areas, where temperatures could drop into the low 20s. It is expected damage will not be that significant, but it will end the growing season. Additionally, a fair amount of Panhandle acres for 2019-20 were never completed due to excessive rains which occurred during the spring.
Also, Thursday USDA will issue weekly sales and exports, monthly supply-demand data, as well as the start of two days of trade talks between the U.S. and China. Clearly, there is a lot riding on Thursday’s session. Of late, weekly sales have been less than enthusiastic as China has essentially been absent from the U.S. market for the better part of a year.
Regarding, crop report data, traders expected basically a neutral report. According to most market analysts if the U.S.-China trade talks achieve even a partial deal, such would be taken as a positive.
For Wednesday, December cotton closed at 62.09 cents, up 0.77 cent, March finished at 62.80 cents, up 0.77 cent and December 2020 settled at 64.88 cents, up 0.69 cent. Wednesday’s estimated volume was 25,659 contracts.