By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market traded sharply higher, and then collapsed to end barely positive on the day. It was reminiscent of a cowboy being tossed by a bucking bronco. After USDA reported so-so sales and exports data, the market suddenly burst upward. Apparently, the fears about a reduced Texas crop, a weather thing in the Gulf, anticipation of next week’s supply-demand estimates, as well as the renewed U.S.-China trade talks caused bears to cover and bulls to buy. Thursday’s estimated volume was a huge 40,394 contracts traded.

To reiterate, next week may bring climatic news in the form of the October supply-demand report, and the possibility of, at least, a U.S.-China trade framework happening.

The Dow Jones has dropped over 8.00 cents since Monday, which has roiled many financial and commodities markets, but today there was a semblance of recovery. That too may have initiated cotton’s upward move. However, October is the first month for the 2019 harvest, and most likely there was some producer selling into the upward run, which bent prices back down.

Friday morning, the Labor Department will publish its all-important jobs data for September. Expectations are for 145,000 non-farm jobs created.

December cotton settled at 61.60 cents, up 0.27 cent, March finished at 62.36 cents, up 0.38 cent and December 2020 ended at 64.63 cent, up 0.30 cent.