Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was higher Thursday as there was position squaring ahead of Friday's crucial Planted Acres report from USDA. Additionally, there was adjusting based on the end of the quarter and midyear timing. Lastly, Q1 GDP was revised higher.    

For Friday's USDA Acreage report, the average trade guess is 11.12 million acres. The March Intentions were 11.256 million, and last year's plantings totaled 13.763 million acres. The report is out at noon eastern.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will issue its weekly Commitment of Traders. The cutoff for the report is each Tuesday's settlement. Last week the data showed that the managed-money funds were net short some 5,500 contracts.    

Crude oil prices were two-sided Thursday. Traders generally fear that rising interest rates will hurt the global economy, and offset Wednesday's bigger-than-expected decline in U.S. stocks. This week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that he expects that interest rates will continue to increase in the coming months. Lastly, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week. It was the largest fall in 20 months and may encourage the central bank to increase rates.    

The six- to 10-day forecast for West Texas calls near-normal temperatures and above-normal rainfall. The extended eight- to 14-day outlook indicates slightly above-normal temperatures with normal precipitation.    

Spot July remains in its notice period. Thursday there were no deliveries, although total deliveries, thus far, stand at 171. July cotton expires July 7.    

Thursday, July Cotton settled at 81.25 cents, up 1.13 cents and December ended at 79.03, up 1.67 cents and March was 79.04 cents, 1.49 cents higher. Estimated volume was 25,626 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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