DTN Closing Cotton            04/18 13:38

   Cotton: Another Day, Another Day Down

   The cotton market posted new lows for its April move Thursday. 

Keith Brown
DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

   The cotton market posted new lows for its April move Thursday. At one time 
during the trading session, all contract months were trading below the 
psychological prices of 80 cents. Such chart devastation is, more or less, the 
result of long-term bullish speculators finally tossing in their proverbial 
trading towels.

   Friday at 3:30 p.m. EDT, the CFTC will update its Commitments of Traders 
data. Last week saw net sales of 18,000-plus contracts by the managed-money 
funds. The result was a reduction in their net-long position to 62,000 
contracts. At their 2024 zeal, they were net long some 100,000 contracts.

   Spot May will enter its delivery period next week on April 24. Coming into 
Thursday's trade, the open interest for the May contract stands at 19,200. In 
addition, ICE exchange stocks have reached 166,190 bales, which is the highest 
they have been since June 2021.

   Heading into Friday's trade, July cotton is off 398 points for the week, 
minus 1136 points on the month, and now negative on the year by 222 points.

   Crude oil continues to wobble between being positive and negative, versus 
Wednesday's close. The market has fallen 4% this week as traders unwind their 
war risks linked to the Israel-Iran situation. Israel has refrained from 
immediately striking back against Iran in response to the unprecedented weekend 
air assault, reducing fears of a major war.

   Thursday, May cotton settled at 78.10 cents, down 1.46 cents; July was 80.61 
cents, minus .72 cent; and December finished at 77.41, 113 points lower. 
Thursday's estimated volume was 73,300 contracts.

   Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com




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