By Keith Brown, DTN Cotton Correspondent 

As the financial markets shored up Wednesday, the cotton market held on to a measure of its Wednesday gains. Of course, that is no surprise given it has been quite obvious of late, the path of cotton has been dictated by the path of the Dow.

Thus, Wednesday’s “quiet session” for the stock market was not only much needed, but beneficial for other markets.

Thursday, USDA will report weekly exports-sales, which were hefty during the month of February. Yet, even such dynamic business could not yet trump the overwhelming negativity of coronavirus. Still, it is a long season both for the old crop and new Crop, so anything can happen.

Certainly, if the effects of coronavirus can pass quickly, old crop cotton can still rally. To the new crop, traders are expecting fewer acres, especially in the light December cotton’s prices being below cost of production in many areas of the Cotton Belt.

Spot March cotton is quickly fading away, but remains in delivery. To date there have been 359 notices issued, with none this week. March cotton expires March 9. For today, May cotton ended at 62.98 cents, up 0.21 cent, July finished at 63.67 cents, up 0.11 cent, December settled at 63.96 cents, up 0.13 cent. Estimated volume was 37,238 contracts.