The cotton market finished with mixed results after Friday’s USDA’s planting acres report revealed neutral numbers. The 2019 all cotton crop was pegged at 13.70 million acres by government tabulators. This number was lower than the average industry of 13.82 acres and March’s planting intentions of 13.78 million acres. The range of estimates spanned from 13.40 million up to 14.30 million acres.

The cotton market was hesitant to rally, given the neutrality of the number and the fact the Trump/Xi meeting takes place Saturday. While few analysts do not expect much from that meeting, we should all remember these two presidents have very dynamic and unpredictable personalities. To that end, Sunday’s night opening will be one to watch.

Friday marks the end of the month and end of the quarter, plus it’s mid-year. Such calendar inflection points tend to allow any given market to reverse course. With that in mind, speculators enter the third quarter heavily net short the market. The third quarter represents the very crucial crop develop period.

For the week, December cotton finished 0.52 cent higher, but for the month down 0.99 cent and worst, for the quarter, the market was down 9.36 cents.

Friday, July cotton settled 63.15 cents, up 0.16 cent, December settled 66.08, down 0.01 cent and March closed 66.69 cents, down 0.20 cent. Estimated volume was 17,500 contracts.