The cotton market was back up on Thursday to post gains of 83 to 105 points at the close. The outside market factors are a mixed bag, with crude oil up another 71 cents and the US dollar index back 193 points higher.

USDA’s Export Sales report showed a 38.32% wk/wk drop in old crop sales to 156,450 RB in the week that ended on May 9. That was still up 18.13% from the same week last year, as Chinese led the way with 63,600 RB in sales. New crop sales totaled 140,603 RB, a slight decline from last week. El Salvador was the buyer of 90,800 RB of that total. Export shipments were tallied at 238,755 RB, 4.36% lower than the week prior. The top destination was China, with 85,000 RB headed that way, as 39,900 RB was shipped to Turkey.

ICE certified cotton stocks rose another 13,135 bales on May 15 at 182,870 bales. The Seam reported 647 bales sold on the platform on 5/15, with an average price of 68.01 cents/lb. The Cotlook A Index was back down 165 points on May 15 at 84.20 cents/lb. The AWP dropped another 18 points to 59.46 on Thursday and is good through next week.

Jul 24 Cotton  closed at 76.24, up 83 points,

Dec 24 Cotton  closed at 75.19, up 90 points,

Mar 25 Cotton  closed at 76.8, up 95 points