The cotton market finished higher Wednesday amid a top Chinese administrative authority saying the government would work to stabilize Chinese stock markets and boost economic growth. Recent COVID-19 outbreaks threaten to weaken the economy, but China’s State Council met Wednesday and said it would take “concrete actions” to boost the economy in the first quarter. That news resulted in a massive rally among the Chinese stock markets.
Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve announced an official rate hike of one-quarter point. Such a move has been long expected. The action initially caused the Dow Jones to fall, but then it recovered 100 points higher. However, the possibility of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia carries more bullish weight for world investors.
Crude oil fell below $100 a barrel in volatile trading Wednesday. Energies came under pressure from progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks. Ukraine indicated its positions and those of Russia were sounding more achievable. In fact, Russia’s foreign minister said some provisions were close to being agreed upon.
Wednesday, May cotton settled at 119.80 cents, up 1.20 cents, July closed at 116.00 cents, up 0.94 cent and December finished at 102.63 cents, 0.88 cent higher; estimated volume was 21,459 contracts.
