By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

After a banner week, the cotton market eased off Friday, as some profit-taking hit the trade. Since last Friday, March cotton has gained some 4.00 cents, amid bullish export sales data and supply-demand numbers. Thus, some traders felt it was wise to exit the market and reassess next week.

Friday afternoon the CFTC will release its market structure data. This information indicates what positions certain market participants, such as speculators, carry. At last count, certain managed money funds were net long some 60,000 plus contracts. That is the equivalent of 6.0 million bales.

Reiterating Thursday’s crop data, U.S. cotton production was lowered to 15.95 million bales from 17.09 million November estimate. The average trade estimate was 16.74 million bales. Exports were raised to 15.0 million bales from 14.6 million in November. This action lowered ending stocks down to 5.7 million bales from 7.2 million in November. Currently, the stocks-to-use ratio is down to 33% from 42% previously, which is the lowest since 2016-17, when it fell to 15%.

The U.S. dollar was higher Friday, although for the week it is down about 15 points.

March cotton finished up 2.51 cents for the week, up 1.93 cents for the month and up 3.28 cents for the year.

For Friday, March cotton closed at 74.08 cents, down 0.18 cent, July settled at 75.54 cents, down 0.19 cent and December cotton ended at 72.37 cents, 0.18 cent lower. Estimated volume was 22,747 contracts.