Commercial buying moved backing into the spotlight Thursday, particularly with the sharp rally in the old-crop October contract.

New-crop December cotton gained 0.49 to close at 68.89 while March rallied 0.32 to 68.44. December corn finished 1 3/4 cents higher while November soybeans rallied 7 1/4 cents and September Chicago wheat gained 2 cents for the day. The U.S. dollar index was 0.46 higher at 93.86 and August gold was $11.20 higher at $1,260.70.

September silver gained $0.121 and September copper dipped $0.0025. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 24 points higher at 21,734. September crude oil was $0.25 higher at $49.00 with the August distillates (heating oil) contract up $.0078 while August RBOB gasoline rallied $.0269 and August natural gas was $0.045 higher.

Comments:

Commercial buying reemerged in cotton after taking a one-day break. The inverse in the December-to-March spread gained 0.17 as ideas lean toward a tighter new-crop supply-and-demand situation. As for old-crop, weekly export shipments (for the week ending Thursday, July 20) were bullish at 326,800 rb, up 17% from last week and 27 from the prior four-week average. This helped spark a 3.00 rally in the lightly traded October contract before it fell back from its high over the course of the session.