Cotton Red through Thursday Midday

The nearby cotton market is trading with midday losses of 30 to 41 points. May is near the low for the day as this is written. 

Weekly FAS data had cotton bookings at 114,525 RBs for the week that ended 3/2. That was a 3-wk low and was 68% lower than the same week last year. USDA reported 287k RBs were shipped during the week for a season total of 5.674m RBs. 

Census data showed 980,645 bales of US cotton was exported in January. That was up 45% from December but was 31% lower yr/yr. The season’s export total reached 4.897m bales through Jan, compared to 4.721m last year and the 12m bale WASDE forecast. 

USDA did increase expected world cotton ending stocks yesterday by 2.1 million bales from last month, with Chinese stocks boosted 2 million bales to 39.4 of the 91.1 million world total.  

The Cotlook A Index was 50 points firmer to 99.40 for 3/7. USDA’s weekly Cotton Market Review showed 31,860 bales were sold at spot this week for an average price of 82.41 cents. The AWP for cotton is now 72.73 cents/lb from 70.78 cents.

Mar 23 Cotton  is at 82.74, down 15 points,

May 23 Cotton  is at 82.19, down 43 points,

Jul 23 Cotton  is at 82.84, down 41 points