Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was lower Friday as the outside markets proved too shaky to offer any support. The Dow, the energies, the grains and the metals were all materially lower, while the U.S. dollar resumed its uptrend. Cotton traders also sloughed off an improved weekly export-sales report. Its data had increased sales and shipments week over week, with China as a noticeable participant.    

Weather-wise, the six- to 10-day shows mainly dry conditions from Texas to the Southeast, with temperatures somewhat below normal. The eight- to 14-day outlook indicates slightly above-normal rainfall for Texas, the Delta and the Southeast.    

Crude oil fell Friday as global recession fears and weak oil demand, especially in China, outweighed support from a previous large supply cut by OPEC+. China, the world's largest crude oil importer, has been fighting new COVID-19 infections after a week-long holiday. The infection cases are small by global standards, but China strictly adheres to her zero-COVID-19 policy, thus economic activity and oil demand have been reduced.    

For the week, December cotton stands at minus 1.08 cents, for the month it is down 2.19 cents and for the year, it is down 9.50 cents.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will publish its weekly commitment of traders report. Last week, the managed-money funds were shown to be net long some 32,000 contracts.      

For Friday, December closed at 83.15 cents, down 1.64 cents, March 2023 finished at 81.99 cents, down 1.50 cents and July 2023 settled at 79.85 cents, 0.98 cent lower; estimated volume was 25,426 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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