Cotton contracts from May 2014 through March of 2015 closed higher Friday.

May saw a steady advance higher during FridayΆs trade, eventually making new highs for the day and week. Within one hour — from 10 a.m. CDT to 11 a.m. — May saw its largest gain of the day, which was 100 points. July saw more of a choppy advance but stayed positive throughout the day as well. Open interest was down as of this morning but todayΆs volume was approximately 62% higher in both May and July from the previous day.

New cropΆs lack of bullish potential can be read in almost any newsletter, but today December had other plans. New-crop December made new five-month highs. Cotton contracts from May 2014 through March of 2015 closed positively; May gained a total of 113 points, July 93 and December 27 points.

As the absence of newfangled data drags into the end of the week, the market took hold of verbal opinions more than usual. The president of Calcot, a cotton cooperative, mentioned during an Ag Market Conference call that the ginning data should be smaller than anticipated, which will in turn bring down ending stocks once again for the 13/14 crop.

On the contrary, there remains a buzz over acreage increases that may be seen on the Prospective Plantings Report which will be bearish for new crop. The Prospective Plantings report will be released March 31.

The Commitment of Traders report came out this afternoon from the CFTC and showed as expected, the spec long position increase. The Producer/Merchant side shows, of course, a large short position of 121,335; their long position comes in at 7,623. As previously stated, the next fundamental data to hit the cotton market will be the Cotton Ginnings Report on March 25.