By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market experienced a slow, shoddy holiday trade Friday as it concluded the month of May. Volume, as to be expected, was light, and daily ranges were less than a 1 cent. December cotton ended the week up a measly 0.15 cent, but down 1.88 cents for the month. However, for the year, new crop still stands 8.50 cents positive.

Into next month there will be a plethora of informational reports. USDA will continue to issue its planting progress numbers but will enhance that data with published crop condition numbers. There will be the usual weekly-exports updates each Thursday, and there is a supply-demand report on June 10. However, the biggie will be USDA’s planted acres on June 30. Some traders are expecting to see a huge reduction in 2021 cotton acres given the super-size price rise seen in corn and soybean. The last USDA cotton number was 12.00 million acres.

Later Friday, the CFTC will issue its weekly commitment-of-traders report. It will be hugely important to see how the trend-following funds stack versus the start of the new trading month.

Friday, July cotton closed at 82.12 cents, down 0.49 cent, December settled 83.32 cents, down 0.14 cent and March 2022 ended 83.31 cents, 0.10 cent lower; estimated volume was 23,977 contracts.