By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The market ended with triple-digit gains Thursday as the U.S. dollar traded lower and Chicago grains recovered. Currency traders believe stimulus on top of stimulus will only devalue the buying power of the U.S. dollar, thus exacerbating its downward trend. Of course, cotton traders will also monitor the situation with China’s Xinjiang Province to see if there are any retaliations.

USDA will issue its holiday-delayed weekly export-sales report Friday. Last week, China led a long list of customers in for U.S. cotton.

There are growing expectations for a consumer boom once the COVID-19 restrictions are relieved. In a blatant turnaround in policy, several democratic governors are now calling for restaurants, schools and retail shops to open.

Heading into Friday’s trading session, spot March is 1.87 cents up on the week and up 4.45 cents on the month and year.

For Thursday, March cotton closed at 82.57 cents, up 0.98 cent, July settled at 84.30 cents, up 1.02 cents and December cotton ended at 79.04 cents, up 1.09 cents; estimated volume was 41,049 contracts.