Cotton prices remained steady, with a slight increase of up to 5 points across most futures contracts. As of December 30, the March 26 cotton future closed at 64.27 cents, down 5 points. USDA announced a cotton payment of $117.35 per acre under the Farm Bridge Assistance program on Wednesday afternoon.
In related market data, the Commitment of Traders report indicated that managed money reduced their net short positions by 4,387 contracts as of December 23, totaling 50,446 contracts. Export sales showed 182,680 bales of cotton sold in the week ending December 18, with shipments reaching an 8-week high of 146,915 bales.
Crude oil futures fell by 54 cents to $57.41 per barrel, while the US dollar index rose by $0.040 to 97.995. The Adjusted World Price for cotton was updated to 50.02 cents per pound, a slight increase from the previous week.
