By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market closed higher Thursday, sloughing off a mediocre weekly export sales number. Traders are also wanting to look at the conditions ratings on Monday and the supply-demand update next week. Early indications call for an uptick in U.S. production, but an increase in global demand. Thus, world stocks may suffer lower yet again. In addition, there is industry talk China may expand her import quotas to meet textile demand.

With calendar August signaling “crunch time” for the crop’s development, weather conditions are a very crucial factor. The five-day forecast for West Texas calls for dry conditions. The six- to 10-day forecast calls for slightly above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation. The extended eight- to 14-day outlook indicates below-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation for north Texas, but above-normal precipitation for southern parts of Texas.

Friday morning, the Labor Department will issue its monthly jobs report. Analysts are expecting to see some 880,000 non-farm jobs created. This compares to last month’s 850,000 jobs.

Heading into Friday’s trade, December cotton is up 1.29 cents so far this week and the month, and is up 16.98 cents on the year.

Thursday, December cotton settled 90.68 cents, up 0.37 cent, March ended at 90.39 cents, up 0.38 cent and December 2022 ended at 81.85 cents, 0.29 cent higher; estimated volume was 19,774 contracts.