By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market settled slightly lower Wednesday as traders await Thursday’s weekly export sales and ponder damage at the port of New Orleans.

For Thursday’s export sales, the number to beat is 318,000 bales. That was the combined seasonal sales amounts for last week, when El Salvador was the primary buyer for both crop years.

Talk is that the Port of New Orleans, the largest agricultural export facility in the U.S., sustained damage from Hurricane Ida. The facility suffered both structural and electrical losses. Power is not expected to be restored before four to six weeks pass. To that end, corn, beans and cotton were all lower Wednesday.

The Commerce Department reported that Consumer Confidence fell to a six-month low for August. Supposedly, this report is a leading indicator suggesting the potential for poor demand for six months hence. Also, the University of Michigan survey of consumers showed sentiment dropping to a near 10-year low in August.

Reasons given for such a low ebb are rising prices for food and gasoline. If there is any additional bad news, say stemming from COVID-19, then consumer demand can be all the more impaired.

For Wednesday, December settled at 92.30 cents, down 0.23 cent, March ended at 91.66 cents, down 0.11 cent and December 2022 ended at 82.42 cents, 0.27 cent lower; estimated volume was 24,549 contracts.