DTN Closing Cotton            11/05 13:39

   Cotton Stabilizes Higher 

   Cotton gains on strong export sales, dollar weakness ahead of jobs data.

Keith Brown
DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

   Despite the huge about-face in the stock markets, as well as declining 
Chicago Grains, the cotton market was able to hold and settle moderately higher 
Thursday. Some traders thought weekly sales were supportive, while others saw a 
timid U.S. Dollar as "cotton-positive."

   Highlights from Thursday's exports-sales included net sales of 277,522 bales 
for the 2026/2027 marketing year, the highest amount since Sept. 17. Cumulative 
sales have reached 51% of USDA's forecast versus a five-year average of 58% for 
this point in the marketing year. Shipments totaled 137,782 bales, which was a 
marketing-year low number. 

   Friday at 8:30 a.m. EST, traders will see a new monthly jobs report. Last 
month's report showed 29,000 new non-farm jobs were added to the economy. This 
month's guess is 65,000 jobs with an unemployment rate of 4.2%.

   Also, on Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will update 
its Commitments of Traders report (COT) data. Last week saw the managed funds 
sell 10,000-plus positions, reducing their net-long carry of 56,190 contracts.

   For Thursday, December closed at 78.71 cents, up 60 points, March 2027 
finished at 82.55 cents, plus 59 points, and July 2027 settled at 84.49 cents, 
47 points higher. Thursday's estimated volume was 79,419 contracts.

   Keith Brown can be reached at [email protected]




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