December Cotton settled at 8795, up 145 points Wednesday as Speculators see a “dry path” into Calendar August. Although the chances for rain Thursday around the Lubbock area have been increased back to 60%, going forward, the opportunities for additional rain dies down to a mere 10% and 20% daily into next week.

With USDA slashing the crop one million bales in its July supply-Demand data, plus reporting one-half the Texas Crop rated very poor to poor; understandably, Speculators are on edge.

Another potential lift for cotton Wednesday were comments from President Trump about “ending all tariffs and subsidies” in global trade. His comments were made during meetings in Washington with representatives of the European Union trade delegation.

Interestingly, Wednesday’s trading volume didn’t seem consistent with such a strong, positive close. One would have thought such a dynamic technical trade would have encouraged more participating volume. Daily volume was estimated at 17,400 contracts, although it was the deepest volume session since July 13.

December 18 settled 8797 up 127, March 19, 8780 up 111, and December 19, 8047 up 29 points.