Cotton is trading back down by as much as 108 points this morning, which has May’s weekly gain at 86 points at midweek. Old crop cotton closed 80 points off the Tuesday session highs, but still 116 to 139 points in the black. New crop futures were also 10 to 30 points higher as the market continues to try to buy acreage.  

Analysts are looking for Thursday’s Planting Intentions report to show between 10.4m and 11.3m acres for 2024/25 cotton. The average 11.3m acre estimate would be a 1.1m acre increase from last year and is 300k acres larger than USDA’s Outlook Forum assumptions in February.  Whether that would alleviate the tight old crop/stocks use situation depends on your assumptions for 2024 yield and export demand!

The Cotlook A Index for 3/21 was 85 points lower to 97 cents flat. The AWP was revised 360 points lower to 72.50 cents per pound, in effect for farm program purposes through next Thursday. ICE certified stocks were shown at 41,756 bales as of 3/20.

May 24 Cotton  closed at 93.41, up 139 points, currently down 102 points

Jul 24 Cotton  closed at 93.86, up 131 points, currently down 108 points

Dec 24 Cotton  closed at 84.3, up 29 points, currently down 78 points