
Cotton prices were sharply higher at the overnight open thanks to the worsening conditions and harvest data from NASS. After the initial jump at the open, AM trade has cotton working at the highs with 52 to 114 point gains. Cotton futures were 15 to 57 points higher at the Monday close. December ended the day 65 points off the high after a 119 point intraday range.
USDA’s NASS reported 45% of cotton bolls have yet to open as of 9/17. That is 3 ppts ahead of average. The report had harvest advancing 1% point during the week to 9% complete. That compares to 10% on average, though TX was 20% harvested compared to 18% on average. Cotton conditions were 4 points lower on the Brugler500 to 271. At the state level, NASS showed AZ and LA worsened by double digits, while VA improved by double digits.
Chinese Custom’s data had 180k MT of cotton imports for August. That was up 62% from Aug ’22. The year-to-date total was 37% lower than 2022 with 860k MT through August.
The Cotlook A Index for 9/15 was a penny stronger at 98.5 cents. USDA’s weekly Cotton Market Review had 9,947 bales sold at spot for an average price of 81.19 cents/lb. The AWP for cotton was lowered 1.6 cents to 71.95 cents/lb. ICE Certified Stocks were 2,652 bales on 9/8.
Dec 23 Cotton closed at 87, up 56 points, currently up 114 points
Mar 24 Cotton closed at 87.89, up 53 points, currently up 95 points
May 24 Cotton closed at 88.41, up 57 points, currently up 79 points
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.