The cotton market is back to heading lower into the weekend, as midday losses are 10 to 39 points in the nearby contracts. The outside market factors are a mixed bag, with crude oil up another 31 cents and the US dollar index just 20 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 5,969 bales on May 15 at 188,839 bales. The Seam reported 216 bales sold on the platform on 5/16, with an average price of 59.95 cents/lb. The Cotlook A Index was back up 90 points on May 16 at 85.10 cents/lb. The AWP dropped another 18 points to 59.46 on Thursday and is good through next week.

Jul 24 Cotton  is at 75.85, down 39 points,

Dec 24 Cotton  is at 74.94, down 25 points,

Mar 25 Cotton  is at 76.57, down 23 points