DTN Closing Cotton            08/14 13:31

   Cotton Ends Week on Positive Note

   The cotton market was able to finish its daily session significantly higher 
and its weekly trade meekly higher (up 26 points). 

Keith Brown
DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

   The cotton market was able to finish its daily session significantly higher 
and its weekly trade meekly higher (up 26 points). Traders are still trying to 
sort out this week's August WASDE data, which showed increased U.S. production 
and planted acres, amid a lower pound-per-acre yield.

   This afternoon, the CFTC will update its Commitments of Traders numbers. 
Last week saw the managed-money funds net buy 9,800 positions, swelling their 
net-long carry to 62,279 contracts.

   Weather notes show Texas remains a huge concern. Dryland cotton in West 
Texas is deteriorating and conditions are expected to worsen over the next 10 
days. The Delta and the Southeast should see dry conditions across the Delta 
into Alabama. Elsewhere in the Southeast, moisture is generally adequate.

   The U.S. Climate Prediction Center sees a 90%+ chance of a strong El Nino 
this fall/winter. That could mean drier conditions in some Southern Hemisphere 
cotton-growing regions, potentially tightening global supplies later. For 
China, hot-and-dry weather continues in Xinjiang, and it is reducing the number 
of bolls per plant.

   On Monday at 4 p.m. EDT, USDA will update the 2026 crop in its Weekly Crop 
Progress and Conditions report. Recent data has the crop rated at 40% 
good/excellent versus 42% last week, and 53% one year ago.

   For Friday, December closed at 84.80 cents, up 130 points; March 2027 
finished at 86.68 cents, plus 126 points; and July 2027 settled at 87.35 cents, 
116 points lower. Friday's estimated volume was 36,423 contracts.

   Keith Brown can be reached at [email protected]




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