By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was lower Thursday despite positive fundamental news from Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, USDA lowered the 2021 crop some 600,000 bales, taking ending stocks down 200,000 to 34.2 million bales. Additionally, world carryout was trimmed some 720,000 bales. Then Thursday, tabulators reported strong sales and shipments. Despite Thursday’s setback, both the technical trend and the fundamental picture remain bullish.

Friday, CFTC will update the market with its commitment of traders report. Last week revealed a strong jump in the net long position held by the managed-money funds. That number was 80,277 contracts long. Now with the market posting new life-of-contracts highs just Wednesday, it will be interesting to see if those traders have padded their bullish holdings.

Heading into Friday’s session, spot March cotton is up 1.72 cents on the week, up 4.24 cents on the month, and likewise up 4.24 cents on the month.

Thursday, March cotton settled at 116.84 cents, down 0.80 cent, July ended at 112.14 cents, down 0.37 cent and December finished at 95.68 cents, 0.66 cent lower; estimated volume was 33,526 contracts.