Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

Cotton was materially higher Friday as a much-improved export sales spurred the market. Combining both crop years, net sales were 235,000 bales, which is an amount not seen in many weeks. China was the dominant buyer with 55,000 bales. Shipments were much stronger as well. In addition, the energy complex was demonstratively higher Friday. There is an underlying mood that once China clears peak COVID, its economy should quickly recover.    

Friday afternoon the CFTC will update the position status of the managed-money funds. At last count, they were net long with about 9,110 contracts.    

Next week, the market will see new exports data on Thursday, as well as the Q4 GDP Report. Also, China will be "closed" next week celebrating Lunar New Year. It is expected that COVID infections will dramatically ramp higher due to the mixing and mingling of the traveling population.    

For the week, March Cotton finished some 4.41 cents higher and 3.33 cents up for the month and year, respectively.    

Friday, March 2023 finished at 86.70 cents, up 3.31 cents, July settled at 87.22 cents, up 3.04 cents and December 2023 ended at 84.67 cents, 2.35 cents higher; estimated volume was 41,770 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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