Cotton prices have been on a nice run lately, up 15 to 20 points early on Friday. I've been watching the crude oil connection and it's showing up again - oil jumped another $5.32 this morning which is giving cotton some decent spillover support. Rough week for most contracts on Thursday though, mostly down except the March contract which popped 87 points before expiration.

The export data from this morning caught my attention. Old crop sales came in at around 150k bales for the week, which was actually down pretty significantly from the week before. Vietnam grabbed the bulk of it as usual, but the new crop numbers showed 54k bales sold. What's more interesting is the shipment side - we're seeing nearly 282k bales go out, which is way ahead of last week's pace. That's a marketing year high, so there's some real momentum there.

Looking at the futures action, March 26 cotton closed up 87 points at 63.03, May is sitting at 64.04 down 12 from close but up 18 in the morning session, and July is at 66. The Cotlook index dipped 45 points to 74.50, and ICE certified stocks are holding steady around 129k bales. Crude's at $78.89 and the dollar index popped back up, which is keeping some pressure on cotton price movements. Feels like we're in a consolidation zone right now but the export momentum could push things higher if it holds.