Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market spent much of Wednesday's sessions traversing Tuesday's close several times. Traders are assessing its fundamental and technical factors.    

A couple of positive fundamentals is the weakening U.S. dollar, and the fast pace of the 2022 harvest. By now the gathering is more than 50% complete. Also, there is thought to be a huge short position in the market, given that open interest has dramatically risen as prices have dramatically fallen.    

The U.S. dollar was sharply lower amid ideas that the Fed may temper its hawkish attitude after its November meeting. At that meeting expectations remain for at least a three-quarters hike, but only for a half-point increase for the December meeting.    

Wednesday, USDA will issue its weekly export sales. Last week's sales were 84,500, with China the number three buyer. Exports were 166,000 with China first in line with 71,000 bales shipped.    

For Wednesday, December closed at 77.82 cents, down 0.65 cent, March 2023 finished at 77.38 cents, down 0.56 cent and July 2023 settled at 75.69 cents, 0.36 cent lower; estimated volume was 28,639 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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