By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

Cotton finished Friday with mixed results. Nearby March cotton was lower, while deferred July was higher. It was a very confusing session as misinformation was tweeted from the White House. That is, one moment there was a trade deal and in the next, there was not. Finally, Chinese officials announced at their own news conference they would indeed subscribe to the phase one agreement.

Supposedly, China will make major purchases of U.S. agriculture, while the U.S. will reduce and postpone tariffs on imported Chinese goods. Of course, as the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Supposedly, senior negotiators will sign the phase one deal in January, and not Presidents Trump and Xi.

For the week, March cotton finished 0.80 cent higher. The market posted a new high close as well as a new weekly high since its Aug. 26 harvest low. The market is now approaching its most obvious levels of resistance, which is the July highs at 69.00 cents made last summer.

Next week’s trade will be heavily influenced the trade talk rhetoric and the impeachment proceedings.

For Friday, March cotton closed at 66.80 cents, down 0.37 cent, July finished at 68.87 cents, up 0.20 cent and December cotton ended at 68.73 cents, up 0.26 cent. Friday’s estimated volume was 47,616, a slight increase over Thursday.