"Prices are up as hurricane Dorian strengthened overnight and will cause unwanted rain across cotton-producing regions of North and South Carolina," said Louis Rose, director of research and analytics at Tennessee-based Rose Commodity Group. Dorian strengthened back to a Category 3 hurricane and was causing life-threatening storm surge, heavy rainfall in portions of the Carolinas, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Meanwhile, China and United States on Thursday agreed to hold high-level talks in early October in Washington, boosting markets as investors hoped for a thaw in the trade war between the world's two largest economies. The United States is the world's biggest exporter of cotton, while China is the largest consumer. Investors are awaiting the release of weekly export sales data from the United States Department of Agriculture on Friday. Total futures market volume fell by 3,550 to 14,579 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,764 to 224,871 contracts in the previous session.