Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market ended Thursday lower amid poor weekly export sales. Additionally, the Dow Jones reversed a 350-point positive day into a negative trade.    

Earlier, USDA released its export-sales numbers. The data revealed sales of 85,000 bales for the current season, which was down from last week's 120,000 bales sold. Additionally, weekly shipments were slightly lower than those of the prior report.    

The Dow Jones traded from positive to negative after comments from a Federal Reserve Governor implying that rates would continue to push higher until the pace of inflation was back to the central bank's target of 2%. Currently, "official inflation rate" is running at 8.2%, although many people dispute that number.    

Crude oil was higher Thursday as news sources suggest China is considering cutting the quarantine period for visitors to seven days from 10 days. Such would be seen as a positive demand indicator. China, the world's largest crude importer, has stuck to its strict COVID-19 restrictions all year, and that policy has weighed heavily on business and economic activity, thus lowering demand for fuel. A looming European Union ban on Russian crude and oil products, as well as the output cut from OPEC+ have also supported prices.    

Friday afternoon, the CFTC will issue its weekly commitment of traders report. Last week the managed-money funds netted some 26,000 contracts.  For context, they were net long 96,000 contracts on Oct. 8, 2021.     

For Thursday, December closed at 77.40 cents, down 0.89 cent, March 2023 finished at 77.26 cents, down 0.71 cent and July 2023 settled at 76.24 cents, 0.18 cent lower; estimated volume was 41,872 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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