Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was sharply lower Wednesday as traders fear Thursday's export sales and Friday's WASDE. In addition, traders also are concerned about the outcome of China's COVID relaxations.    

This Thursday, USDA will issue its weekly export sales. Of late, U.S. sales have been terrible, being net negative 109,000 bales two week ago, and less than 30,000 bales sold for last week. In addition, the agency will update its latest supply-demand numbers on Friday.    

The energy markets posted even lower lows Wednesday. Traders are widely concerned with the ultimate trend of U.S. dollar, as well the uncertainty of a Russian oil price cap. The next chart support level at 70 cents.    

December 2022 cotton expired Wednesday at 82.61 cents. That contract first came on in January 2020 at 67.80 cents. Eventually, it posted a contract in May 2022 at 133.77 cents, followed by a July low of 67.80 cents.    

For Wednesday, December closed at 82.61 cents, down 2.78 cents, March 2023 finished at 81.83 cents, down 2.76 cents and July 2023 settled at 81.40 cents, 2.26 cents lower; estimated volume was 33,293 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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