By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market traded a “banner session,” with its old crop contracts going out limit-up bid, while new crop December was sharply higher. Among the bullish fundamentals, which drove prices Friday, was the marketing-year high shipments number released Thursday, the deepening drought across Texas and Oklahoma, and textile and speculative buying.

Next week, traders and analysts alike will be anticipating USDA’s 2022 planting intentions data. For that report, the average industry guess is centering on 12.3 million acres. The original USDA estimate for the January’s Ag Forum was 12.70 million, while the 2021 number was 12.00 million acres.

Domestic exports have been building a head-of-steam lately. Combined seasonal sales have been roughly averaging above 400,000 bales weekly. Additionally, exports have moved back about the 300,000-bale mark, with Thursday’s data showing a superior 400,000-plus-bale shipment number. This emerging pace may force USDA to increase domestic exports, and thus diminished domestic carryout on its April supply-demand report.

For the week, May cotton closed up 9.04 cents, for the month roughly 12.00 cents and some 25.00 cents for the year.

Friday, May cotton settled at 135.90 cents, up 5.00 cents, July closed at 132.35 cents, up 5.00 cents and December finished at 111.74 cents, 2.49 cents higher; estimated volume was 34,153 contracts.