After months of euphoria, the dollar is losing ground, as expected. The only question is what its new central rate will be and whether interest rates can continue to fall in such an environment. 

We dream of hearing "Spin Baby Spin", so keen are we to see our market take off again, but there are still many uncertainties. For Chinese companies, the question will quickly become which cotton to spin. Tainted by suspicions of forced labour by Uighurs, Xinjiang cotton can no longer be used to make clothes for export to the West. What is to be done with all this cotton, and will this encourage China to import more to compensate? Does the practice of imposing prohibitive customs duties on imported textile products signal the return of a flourishing textile industry in America? It is doubtful. 

At the end of February, we will have the first estimates of the area sown in the USA. Given the poor performance of cotton on the markets, one might think that cotton will decline, but we still need to find something to replace it with. Cereals are disappointing and Chinese buyers are giving South American crops the eye of the beholder. 

Demand has picked up in recent days in the Indian sub-continent, particularly in Bangladesh. 

To follow up on what was, to say the least, a confused communication, the European Union issued a press release confirming that cotton remains a noble material, less polluting than synthetics, and that it has no intention of restricting access to it or production within the 27 Member States, thereby putting a stop to wild rumours. 

The dollar should continue to lose ground over the coming weeks, while we remain confident that cotton prices will recover slightly