DTN Cotton Close: Cotton Up on 'Acceptable' PPI
April 13, 2023
The cotton market traded higher Thursday as a benign PPI report suggested less inflation for the U.S. economy.
The cotton market traded higher Thursday as a benign PPI report suggested less inflation for the U.S. economy. That data also caused the Dow and gold to rally as well.
Specifically, the March producer price index declined by 0.5%, month over month, versus expectations for flat data. Excluding food and energy, the core PPI reading shed 0.1% month over month, much better than the 0.2% increase expected by traders.
Friday morning, the Commerce Department will issue its April retail sales data. Traders are looking for a drop of 0.4% in headline retail sales. The ex-autos core measure is also predicted to fall, by 0.3%, after a slide of 0.1% in February. The cotton market needs apparel sales to show strength.
Also Friday, the CFTC will update its commitment of traders report. At last count, the managed-money funds were net short some 17,774 contracts.
Options on spot May futures expire this Friday on the close.
Thursday, May 2023 finished at 83.35 cents, plus 0.90 cent, July settled at 83.19 cents, up 0.80 cent and December 2023 ended at 82.88 cents, 0.45 cent higher. Estimated volume was 66,811 contracts.