By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

Technical buying, as well as some mill-fixation action, prompted the old crop to nudge closer to its contract highs made earlier in the week. With that, some traders are anticipating a continuance of the strong pace seen for sales and shipments.

In addition, and more so for the new crop, the latest newswire polls now indicate the 2022 planting intentions will come in about 12.00 million acres. Exports are out at tomorrow morning, with intentions scheduled tomorrow too.

Crude oil traded nearly 4% higher Wednesday as the DOE reported another stock drawdown. Domestic inventories declined for a second straight week, falling by a bigger-than-expected 3.4 million barrels last week. Of course, oil prices are being massively influenced by prospects of additional Western sanctions against Russia even as peace talks are being conducted.

The U.S. dollar declined Wednesday as its safe-haven status was being undermined by the current Ukrainian/Russian peace talks. As the greenback fell lower, it allowed the Euro to trade higher. In fact, the Euro hit its highest price level against the dollar since March 1.

Wednesday, May cotton settled at 139.84 cents, up 3.03 cents, July closed at 136.20 cents, up 2.95 cents and December finished at 112.44 cents, 1.40 cents higher; estimated volume was 28,862 contracts.