Bullish news: Asia is unaffected by U.S. jobless claims. Clothing demand in Asia is rapidly increasing. Chinese cotton imports have increased 97 percent over last year. Asians can afford more new clothes than we can. Weekly export sales were anticipated to be 340,000 bales. The actual total was way above expectations at 488,000 bales.

Bearish news: Cotton prices started the week with light trading and range bound prices. Higher jobless claims in the United States have less affect on the market than anticipated due to Asian demand. Low unemployment and higher dollar values combined to reduce prices. Housing sales are down 15 percent.

Indian cotton export sales are increasing. They could have enough cotton to keep up with the increase in demand from the rest of Asia. China has a good cotton crop. Technical charts turned bearish.

Sixty-two percent of cotton rates good to excellent. Ninety-four percent of the crop is setting bolls. Twenty-one percent of the cotton is open. The crop is early and large enough to pressure prices.