By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

Spurred on by an impressive weekly export-sales report and a stout Dow Jones, the cotton market closed with triple-digit gains Thursday. Thursday’s weekly sales number was 345,000 bales with China as the top buyer, which was above the running averages of 300,000-plus bales. The Dow Jones and related markets took another look at the Federal Reserve’s action and realized tapering was on hold until late November, if even then. So, the Dow gained back over 600 points.

The market also saw a ton of mill fixation buying emerging at lower prices, along with speculative short covering. To that end, a higher close on Friday will take the market a long way towards repairing the chart damage done by Monday’s 300-point collapse.

Traders are beginning to watch Tropical Depression 18 way out in the lower Atlantic Basin. Traders will have a better idea of its strength and track Monday or Tuesday.

Heading into its Friday session, December cotton is up 0.13 cent on the week, a mere 0.07 cent down on the month and 18.76 cents for the year.

For Thursday, December settled at 92.46 cents, up 1.59 cents, March ended at 91.56 cents, plus 1.39 cents and December 2022 ended at 81.89 cents, 0.89 cent higher; estimated volume was 29,653 contracts.