DTN Closing Cotton            01/02 14:05

   Cotton Fumbles Opening Day

   The first day of 2026 saw the cotton market end lower. 

Keith Brown
DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

   The first day of 2026 saw the cotton market end lower. To some degree, the 
failing outside markets, and then the holiday weekend likely affected cotton's 
trading attitude. However, the market may also have been driven by cash 
fixations by growers into the new tax year, as evidenced by today's big volume.

   USDA released details regarding payments from the Farmer Bridge Assistance 
program. The highest per-acre payments will be paid to rice farmers, who could 
receive $132.89 an acre, followed by cotton farmers, who would receive $117.35.

   The CFTC's most recent Commitments of Traders Report showed managed-money 
traders were net buyers of 4,387 contracts of cotton for the week ending Dec. 
23, reducing their net short to 50,446. This is the smallest net short these 
traders have held since last July. On Oct. 21, they reached a record net short 
of 81,245 contracts.

   USDA will issue its next export sales report this Monday at 8:30 a.m. EST. 
Its last export sales report for the week ending Dec. 18, showed sales of 
182,680 bales. The previous release had sales of nearly 320,000 bales. 
Cumulative sales stand at 57% of the USDA forecast versus a five-year average 
of 73% for this point in the marketing year. The largest buyer last week was 
Vietnam (89,673 bales), followed by Pakistan (29,514). Shipments totaled 
146,915 bales, up from 134,371 the previous week, and the highest since Oct. 23.

   USDA will issue its January WASDE on Jan. 12. Supposedly, the tabulators 
will offer final 2025 production numbers in their data.

   For Friday, March went out at 64.01 cents, down 25 points; July was 66.72 
cents, minus 11 points; and December closed at 68.22 cents, off 13 points. 
Friday's estimated volume was 46,355 contracts.

   Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com




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