Cotton futures finished sharply higher Friday, lifted mainly by weather forecasts as crop insurance planting deadlines approach on the droughty Texas Plains and by a big batch of outstanding July mill sales.

July led the gains, settling up 175 points to 89.21 cents, a contract high close but still within Tuesday’s reversal down from its contract high of 89.88 cents. July finished in the upper quarter of the session’s 254-point range from down 31 points at 87.15 cents to up 223 points at 89.69 cents.

December gained 110 points to close at 86.65 cents, a new contract high settlement and near the high of its 150-point range from 85.35 to a new life-of-contract high at 86.85 cents. The other contract months settled up 82 points to 122 points, with most closing on triple-digit gains.

A steep drop in crude oil prices also lent support as U.S. dollar index futures strengthened against a basket of major currencies. For the week, July gained 266 points and December advanced 422 points.

The market will be closed Monday in observance of Memorial Day.

Volume rose to an estimated 51,100 lots from 47,120 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 25,601 lots or 54%, EFS 150 lots and EFP 14 lots. Options volume increased to 26,494 lots (16,409 calls and 10,085 puts) from 17,946 lots (8,677 calls and 9,269 puts).

Hot, dry weather is expected to persist on the Texas Plains where daytime high temperatures are forecast at 101 degrees on Saturday at Lubbock (86 degrees is normal for the date) and remain for a string of days around the century mark and higher. Slight chances for isolated to widely scattered showers and thunderstorms are seen for Sunday and Monday.

Cotton insurance planting deadlines on the High Plains range from May 31 in northern counties, to June 5 in the central area and June 10 to the south. Some deadlines in the Rolling Plains extend later into June.

Precipitation at Lubbock since Jan. 1 has totaled 2.36 inches, 42% of the normal 5.56 inches and down from 5.49 inches last year. Some area cotton counties have been considerably drier.

Heavy rains are expected in parts of the Southeast the next five to seven days. Around three inches of rain fell in areas throughout Alabama, parts of South Georgia and the Gulf and Atlantic coastal regions the past week. The wet weather delayed planting, but rain was desperately needed. Virginia got up to eight inches of accumulated rain, bringing planting to a standstill, and wet conditions slowed planting in the Carolinas.

Meanwhile, outstanding mill on-call sales based in July outweighed the unpriced position of producers by a ratio of 9.75:1 last week, according to data reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after the close Thursday.

That was up from 7.99:1 the previous week. Mills priced 3,090 lots to reduce their unpriced July position to 46,553 lots and producers priced 1,430 lots to cut theirs to 4,776 lots. A year ago, the unpriced July positions were 37,413 lots for mills and 4,057 lots for producers, a ratio of potential buying to potential selling of 9.22:1.

Across the board, mills raised their unpriced sales by 1,785 lots to a record 164,837 and producers priced 2,742 lots to shave their unfixed position to 43,227. Unpriced positions in December 2019 saw a 1,558-lot increase to 10,232 for mills and a 126-lot decrease to 13,403 for producers.

Certified stocks grew 6,797 bales to 84,389 on Thursday, according to the ICE daily report. There were 6,885 newly certified bales and 88 bales decertified. Open interest increased 2,190 lots to 300,837, with July’s down 5,665 lots to 118,655 and December’s up 6,778 lots to 139,892.