Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market ended with triple-digit gains Thursday despite its putrid export sales, a surging U.S. dollar and the U.S. economy "officially" entering a recession.    

To that latter point, the Commerce Department released its Q2 GDP data which showed the economy contracted to a negative .9% growth rate. However, the announcement became something of a relief, and thus many markets, including the Dow, the Metal, and the Chicago grains were demonstratively higher.    

Traders continue to view the "intense radical weather" in Texas as a steep detriment to 2022 production. The latest update has the six- to 10-day outlook calling for much above normal temperatures with below normal precipitation for West Texas.    

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned President Biden about fomenting strained relations regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan. China considers the island as sovereign territory. In a more than two-hour phone call, the leaders ranged over an array of friction-filled issues, from the Russia-Ukrainian war to the global economy, to the possibility of removing some Trump-era tariffs.    

The U.S. dollar traded both sides of unchanged, after data showed that the U.S. economy contracted again in the second quarter, fueling speculation that the Federal Reserve will not raise rates as high as previously expected. The second straight quarterly decline in GDP meets the standard definition of a recession. It comes as the Fed aggressively hikes rates in an attempt to choke off rising inflation.    

For Thursday, December closed at 96.21 cents, up 1.14 cents, March 2023 finished at 92.67 cents, up 1.21 cents and July 2023 settled at 89.31 cents, 1.30 cents higher; estimated volume was 13,838 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.