By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finished higher Thursday as the double whammy of exports and weather proved highly bullish. To the latter, the National Hurricane Center has identified two tropical depressions, 13 and 14, of which number 14 looks poised to enter the Gulf of Mexico late this weekend and attain hurricane status. This possibility may have caused the cotton market to remember shades of Hurricane Michael, which harshly divested the southeastern crop a few years back.

To the former point, USDA did report moderate sales and huge shipments Thursday morning. Weekly exports exceeded 400,000 plus bales, with China and Vietnam taking the lion’s share. There have been fears of China slowing or canceling some purchases, but apparently that is not the case. However, Thursday’s sales were made at a time when the market was trading around the 62.00-cent area, so if prices get too high, China might reign in additional purchases.

The six- to 10-day weather forecast calls for below normal rainfall for Northern Texas. However, other areas — indeed much of the nation — is expected to see normal to above normal rainfall.

Even as traders are becoming somewhat optimistic about additional Chinese buying, based on U.S. numbers, the general supply/demand outlook looks bearish.

For Thursday, December cotton closed at 64.52 cents, up 0.75 cent, March ended at 65.42 cents, up 0.73 cent, and December 2021 closed at 64.65 cents, up 0.55 cent. Estimated volume was 22,750 contracts.