Cotton Showing Early Monday Gains

Cotton futures are trading with 14 to 35 point gains on Monday morning. Futures were down 3 to 36 points in the 2026 contracts on Friday, with deferred contracts up 8 to 32 points. May was 146 points in the green last week. Crude oil was up $2.67 on the day to $98.81, with the US dollar index up $0.237 to $99.295. 

Early on Monday morning, President Trump put out a Truth Social post ordering the military to postpone strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for 5 days after weekend talks were “good and productive.” Iran state media responded stating there was no direct or indirect contact with the President. Oil is down $6.51 this morning.

Commitment of Traders data showed specs liquidating a large portion of their net short position in the week ending on 3/17, cutting it by 26,549 contracts. That was the largest Tuesday/Tuesday reduction to a net short position on record and took the net short to 40,205 contracts.

Export Sales data has total cotton export commitments at 9.354 million RB, which is down 9% from last year. That is 83% of USDA’s forecast and lags the 96% average pace from the last 5 years. Shipments at 5.303 million RB are 5% below a year ago and 47% of the USDA export estimate, behind the 52% average shipping pace.

The Seam showed sales of 3,286 bales on March 19, averaging 65.60 cents/lb. The Cotlook A Index was steady on Thursday at 79.35 cents. ICE certified cotton stocks were unchanged on 3/18, with the certified stocks level at 115,640 bales. The Adjusted World Price was raised by 2.72 cents to 54.22 cents/lb on Thursday. 

May 26 Cotton  closed at 67.31, down 36 points, currently up 17 points

Jul 26 Cotton  closed at 69.33, down 28 points, currently up 23 points

Dec 26 Cotton  closed at 71.96, down 3 points, currently up 24 points