By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was sharply lower Thursday, on heavy volume, as end-of-the-month profit-taking set in. Generally speaking, the market had increased some 12.00 cents over the course of the month of February, so a setback was inevitable and perhaps warranted. The fact that Thursday’s weekly export-sales were more ordinary than dynamic gave traders the necessary excuse to justify their selling. However, cotton’s down day was also influenced by speculative selling, which beset many markets Thursday.

Friday, the CFTC will update its latest market structure as to who is long or short, and by how much. The latest data had the managed-money speculators net long 68,000 plus contracts. Friday’s number will not include any selling volume from Thursday trade.

As the market enters the last Friday of month, May cotton is down 0.79 cent on the week, up 7.85 cents on the month and up 10.99 cents for the year.

For Thursday, May cotton settled at 89.69 cents, down 4.00 cents, July settled at 90.37 cents, down 3.96 cents and December cotton ended at 84.78 cents, down 2.88 cents; estimated volume was 62,618 contracts.