Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

In a very tight and tedious session, the cotton market finished higher Thursday. Traders are waiting for Friday's delayed exports-sales to see if any progress is being made on the demand front. Of course, Turkey continues to suffer from her 7.8 Richter scale earthquake, while China is still recovering from COVID.    

The U.S. dollar hit a seven-week high Thursday, after the recent release of the Federal Reserve's minutes. Essentially, those minutes indicated the central bank would continue to pursue higher rates as a means of combating inflation. The greenback is still well off its 20-year top of 114.78 hit last October.    

The CFTC will resume the issuance of its commitment-of-traders data Friday. That report has been off-line for three weeks due to a cyberattack on a major reporting clearing firm.    After two days there have been no deliveries against the spot March. Its notice period runs through March 9.    

Of late, apparel sales have essentially been sluggish. Interesting to know is that consumer debt is mounting. In fact, we read where total credit card debt stands at 16 trillion. Thus, consumer spendable income may decline, and global demand may also trend lower.    

Heading into Friday's session, May cotton is up 0.66 cent weekly, off 4.79 cents monthly and down 1.29 cents on the year.    

Thursday, March 2023 finished at 82.41 cents, plus 0.16 cent, May settled at 82.16 cents, up 0.28 cent, July settled at 82.63 cents, up 0.11 cent and December 2023, ended at 82.22 cents, 0.14 cent higher; estimated volume was 19,908 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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