Cotton Closes Mid-Range on Friday Gains

March cotton printed a 365 point range on Friday from -75 to +290. The 10 to 39 point gains across the front months were mostly mid-range. March futures were a net 225 points lower for the week. USDA maintained their average farm price at 85 cents/lb in the December WASDE. 

The weekly CFTC report showed managed money firms were 18,257 contracts net long in cotton as of 12/6. That was a week-to-week increase of 3.3k contracts mostly via short covering. Commercial cotton hedgers were quiet during the week, with 1.8k fewer longs and 2k new shorts for a 40,318 contract net short. 

The USDA raised the average U.S. cotton yield by 13 pounds per acre to 868 – the highest since 2018. With no acreage changes that upped production by 210k bales to 14.24 million. Adjusting usage, USDA cut exports by 250k and domestic by 100k bales, to the lowest since 2015 and 2019 (second lowest on record) respectively. That left carryout 500k bales higher to 3.5 million bales – now just 250k tighter yr/yr. 

The Cotton Ginnings data showed 9.438 million RBs of cotton were ginned through Dec 1 for the slowest pace since 13/14. 

USDA’s weekly Cotton Market Review showed 33,937 bales were sold at spot through the week that ended 12/8. The average price was 81.87 cents/lb. The 12/07 Cotlook A Index was $1.02 75/100 per pound, up by 0.65 cents. USDA’s FSA raised the week’s AWP by 2.14 cents to 75.17 cents per pound. ICE Certified Stocks were 8,901 bales on 12/07. 

Mar 23 Cotton  closed at 80.95, up 10 points,

May 23 Cotton  closed at 80.9, up 25 points,

Jul 23 Cotton  closed at 80.66, up 27 points