Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

December cotton made new lows for its move, coming within 1 cent of its July monthly low, before recovering to slightly higher levels. A strong U.S. dollar, a weaker Dow, plus a bearish exports hangover collectively pushed the market down earlier in the session.    

USDA issued its quarterly grains stocks for September. The report was essentially bullish to corn and wheat, but bearish to soybeans. That data seemed to have little, if any, effect on cotton.    Hurricane Ian is set to make landfall on the east coast of South Carolina, about Charleston. It could threaten the Carolina cotton crops with strong winds and heavy rains.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will publish its Commitment of Traders report. Last week's data showed the managed-money funds were net long some 42,000 contracts. Next week, we will see how end-of-the-quarter selling affected those speculators. On Monday, USDA will update the harvest progress in its weekly report. Last week, the nation's crop was 15% gathered, but given that Hurricane Ian did not adversely impact the South Georgia crop, there should be big strides this weekend in the harvesting efforts.    

As the market closed out Friday's trade, December cotton was down 7.20 cents for the week, 27.87 cents lower for the month and down 13.50 cents for the quarter.    

For Friday, December closed at 85.34 cents, up 0.18 cent, March 2023 finished at 83.45 cents, up 0.72 cent and July 2023 settled at 80.28 cents, 0.88 cent higher; estimated volume was 41,377 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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