EUR/US$: 1.1392
U.S. Cotton: Mixed Friday Close Still Leaves December Higher on the Week
Barchart: Cotton futures closed mixed on Friday, with front months down 51 to 60 points and deferreds up 8 to 11, leaving December with a 156-point gain for the week. Dec26 settled at 82.71 cents, Mar27 at 85.49 and Oct26 at 78.91. Crude oil fell about 2.3% and the dollar index eased. Little was released about what U.S. and Chinese leaders discussed this week, with USTR Greer indicating details would come on Monday. Cumulative export commitments stand at 4.735 million RB, 17% above the same point last year but equal to 41% of USDA's full-season projection against an average pace of 49%. The Seam sold 164 bales on Thursday at 78.01 cents/lb, the Cotlook A Index held at 93.25, certified stocks were unchanged at 29,556 bales, and the Adjusted World Price fell 283 points to 66.09 cents/lb.
Source: Barchart
U.S. Cotton: First Higher Weekly Close in Four Weeks
Calcot (Cindy Walters): December settled at 82.71 cents, down 60 points on the day but up 156 on the week — its first higher weekly close in four, though it remains 867 points lower over that stretch. Open interest opened the session at 385,343 contracts, the third-highest ever and the highest since February. Friday's CFTC positioning report showed a third straight week of speculators liquidating longs while the trade kept adding them, a clear shift in positioning rather than any contraction in open interest; the puzzle is why the trade keeps building. Disappointment was evident over the absence of any cotton-specific outcome from this week's Xi-Trump meeting. China was closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival, with no ZCE trading and no reserve auction, and it was announced that the 2026 State Reserve sales will end with final auctions on September 28 and 29, having sold about 1.75 million bales, 57% of it U.S. cotton. Crude oil fell 2.3% on hopes of a U.S.-Iran truce and a possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the dollar eased on the day but held a weekly gain. December's low slipped back below its 100-day moving average but the contract settled above it, and the Dec/March spread closed at a new contract-high 278 points March premium.
Source: Calcot
U.S. Cotton: The Wet Blanket on the Market Appears to Be Lifting
Texas A&M (Dr. John Robinson): For the week ending September 24, ICE futures moved sideways around the 83-cent level, with December settling at 83.31 cents, and Robinson judges that the pressure weighing on the market appears to be easing. USDA data put boll opening 7% and harvesting 4% ahead of their five-year averages through September 20, while the crop was rated 34% good/excellent and 31% fair. Upland net export sales for the week ending September 17 reached 230,500 running bales, though weekly shipments remain below the pace USDA's 2026/27 export target requires. Chinese prices firmed early in the week before weakening, and the A-Index was mixed.
Source: Texas A&M Cotton Marketing
U.S./China: Preferential Trade Lane Agreed for Select Goods
Quartz: Washington says it has reached agreement with Beijing on preferential treatment for a defined set of goods, with USTR Jamieson Greer promising full details on Monday. The aim is a protected lane in which certain products get favourable terms and stay shielded from future tariffs by either side, covering U.S. farm products and medical devices along with Chinese consumer goods the administration does not consider sensitive; the mechanism runs through the U.S.-China Board of Trade set up at the Beijing summit in May, and Greer stressed that national-security export controls stay outside the talks. The announcement follows the extension of the bilateral trade truce to January 10, the first formal U.S.-China talks on artificial intelligence, and Treasury Secretary Bessent's confirmation of the Busan Agreement keeping tariffs on Chinese goods near 20%, with expectations that China may announce expanded purchases of American farm products. Which products, what tariff changes and when remain to be specified.
Source: Quartz
Global: Firms Linked to a Sanctioned Chinese Cotton Group Still Ship Clothing to the U.S.
Reuters: Three Vietnamese garment makers with close ties to Hong Kong-based Esquel Group have exported at least $5 million of cotton goods to the United States since Washington blacklisted Esquel in November 2024 over alleged links to forced labour in Xinjiang — allegations the company denies. All three traded under variations of the name Esquel Garment Manufacturing Vietnam until they were rebranded as Tessellation in October 2022, one later becoming An Loi Apparel; corporate filings show the same offshore owners before and after, with Esquel's former chief executive listed as owner's representative. Customs data show Esquel sent about 70% of the $34 million of cotton it exported from China between November 2024 and June 2026 to these three makers, which also buy from other suppliers. Reuters could not establish whether the goods shipped to the U.S. contained Esquel or Xinjiang cotton, and industry practice is to blend fibre from different origins. Clothing from the plants was made for brands including Muji and Rodd & Gunn, both of which said they were unaware of any link to Esquel. Enforcement remains thin: U.S. Customs detained roughly $2.6 million of the $28 billion in apparel shipped from Vietnam over that period under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and more than half of it was later released.
Source: Reuters
Brazil: Quality Must Improve to Close the Premium Gap with U.S. Cotton
The AgriBiz: Speaking at the 15th Brazilian Cotton Congress, SLC Agrícola chief executive Aurélio Pavinato said Brazilian cotton is weaker than U.S. cotton on short fibres and has a bigger stickiness problem, and argued the country should move from visual classing to standardised laboratory testing. Agroconsult figures presented at the event put Brazilian cotton at around 600 premium points against more than 1,000 for U.S. cotton. Brazil has nonetheless taken large shares of the main import markets — 49% in China, 37% in Bangladesh and 33% in India — and Pavinato set out three priorities: better fibre quality, product innovation and stronger global marketing, suggesting planted area could double within ten to twenty years if demand grows accordingly.
Source: The AgriBiz
Pakistan: Cotton Output Falls to a 30-Year Low
Textiles Resources: Pakistan's cotton crop has dropped to 5.5 million bales, the weakest in three decades and almost 70% below the record 14.8 million bales of 2011/12, which the Pakistan Textile Council blames on severe heat during the June-July flowering window and acute water shortages in Sindh and southern Punjab. Textile and clothing exports were broadly flat at $18.004 billion in FY26, up 0.3%, even as total merchandise exports fell 5.9%. Raw-material and intermediate shipments fell 3.4% to $3.026 billion, the weakest in five years, with cotton itself down 1.5% to $2.486 billion, while value-added exports rose 1.1% to $14.979 billion and now make up 83.2% of the total. The EU remains the largest market at $7.103 billion, ahead of the U.S. at $4.853 billion. With mills turning increasingly to imported fibre, the council is calling for a national cotton strategy built on better seed, digitisation for farmers and supply-chain traceability, alongside lower energy and financing costs.
Source: Textiles Resources
Global: EU-India Trade Deal Alarms Bangladeshi and Pakistani Exporters
Textiles Resources: The newly agreed free trade deal between the European Union and India, which gives roughly 93% of Indian exports expanded duty-free access, has unsettled the two other big South Asian textile exporters. Pakistan and Bangladesh have long relied on preferential access through GSP and Everything But Arms, and Europe is the largest market for both: clothing and textiles made up 75.8% of EU imports from Pakistan in 2024 and close to 94% of imports from Bangladesh. India, by contrast, has faced standard MFN duties of about 12% on textiles, yet still grew its EU trade 90% over the past decade to €120 billion in goods in 2024. Scrapping duties on 90% of tariff lines, covering 91% of trade value, particularly favours labour-intensive Indian sectors, and analysts expect Indian textile and apparel exports to grow 20-25% a year once the deal takes effect, from a current 3% share of the EU's $250 billion apparel market. Implementation is not expected before 2027, pending ratification by the European Parliament.
Source: Textiles Resources
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