On Friday, ICE cotton futures in the front months were steady to 7 points lower. The March contract ended the week down a total of 85 points. Crude oil futures rose $1.95 per barrel to $61.31, while the US dollar index fell 0.871 to 97.305.

USDA Export Sales data showed cotton sales of 412,457 running bales in the week ending January 15, the highest level of the current marketing year. Vietnam was the largest buyer with purchases of 220,700 running bales, while Bangladesh bought 38,600 running bales. Cotton export shipments for the week totaled 187,776 running bales, also a strong marketing-year level. Vietnam was again the top destination with 62,300 running bales, followed by Pakistan with 45,900 running bales.

Commitment of Traders data showed managed money adding 1,580 contracts to their net short position in cotton futures and options as of Tuesday, taking the net short position to 51,952 contracts.

According to NASS cotton ginnings data, 732,950 running bales of cotton were ginned between January 1 and January 15, bringing the marketing-year total ginnings to 12.695 million running bales.

The Seam’s Thursday online auction showed sales at an average of 62.43 cents per pound for 16,726 bales. The Cotlook A Index was unchanged on January 22 at 74.55 cents per pound. ICE certified cotton stocks were also unchanged on January 22 at 10,422 bales. The Adjusted World Price was updated Thursday afternoon to 50.99 cents per pound, down 18 points from the previous week.