Cotton starts the last trade day of the week 19 to 68 points lower due to some profit taking. May cotton options expire today, with the 84, 85 and 86 pins in play. After morning firmness on Thursday, front month cotton futures broke to the upside and closed 20 to 82 points in the black. May contracts are up 427 points for the month to date. New crop December contracts are 3.08 cents/lb stronger since the start of the month.

USDA reported cotton bookings from the week ending 4/8 at 122,265 RBs. That was down from 270k RBs last week and below the 5-week average. Total cotton commitments are 14.97m RBs, which trails last year’s pace by 2%, but exceeds USDA’s forecast for the MY’s exports by 4%. Of that, 4.8m RBs of cotton are still on the books with 10.16m RBs already shipped.

Cotton sales reported by The Seam were 3,673 bales on 4/14, for an average gross price of 76.03 c/lb. USDA’s Daily Spot Quotations report for 4/15 showed 5,758 bales sold at spot. The Cotlook A index was back up by 170 points on 4/14 to 89.10 cents/lb. USDA’s  new AWP for cotton is 68.16 cents/lb after a 324 point increase from week to week.

May 21 Cotton  closed at 85.02, up 82 points, reversing 63 points this morning

Jul 21 Cotton  closed at 86.26, up 74 points, and now down 68

Dec 21 Cotton  closed at 83.08, up 37 points, and 19 points lower this morning