December cotton was slightly higher Wednesday, snapping a five-day losing streak. However, the estimated volume of 16,500 contracts left traders feeling less bullish. In fact, given that the market is in its infancy of harvest, every day ought to generate some selling pressure stemming from hedge-type action.

Overall, cotton’s trend remains steeply bearish, reflecting the huge exodus of speculators. Back in June, when prices were above 90-cents, open interest stood at 322,000 contracts plus, but now current open interest is roughly 250,000 contracts. That a difference of nearly 75,000 contracts, which reflects a ton of lost business.

In earlier comments Wednesday, we reminded readers of Thursday’s weekly sales and exports data and Friday’s jobs data. To the latter, the privately watched ADP payrolls data came out Wednesday suggesting some 230,000 jobs were created for the month of September. In response, the Dow Jones opened into all-time highs. Moreover, the data buoyed U.S. Dollar as well. If this number is confirmed by the Labor Department on Friday, then expect higher interest rates into next summer. Such could prove to be a lag on future cotton export activities.

December cotton settled 7646, up 27, March was 7720, up 28, and December 2019 was 7572, unchanged.