By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

After posting a new 3-cent-plus high for the move, spot March cotton did settle down to close about 1.30 cents higher. The main driver for today’s upside push was the improving shipment data seen in Thursday morning’s weekly export-sales report, and speculators buying the bullish trend. To that end, March cotton nearly painted over its bearish omicron gap posted the day after Thanksgiving.

Friday, the market will trade a full schedule based on quirky trading rules in the ICE’s bylaws. However, trading in the new year will commence Monday morning.

The CFTC’s weekly commitment of traders report will be delayed until Monday, Jan. 3rd. Last week showed that certain managed-money funds roughly bought 1,000 contracts, swelling their net-long position to 70,700 plus.

As the market enters its last trading session for 2021, March cotton finds itself up 5.22 cents week over week, up 7.93 cents for the month and 39.07 cents higher on the year.

Thursday, March cotton settled at 114.34 cents, up 1.35 cents, July ended at 108.19 cents, up 0.87 cent and December ended at 92.29 cents, 0.64 cent higher; estimated volume was 18,991 contracts.