Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
Cotton futures closed the week on firm footing, with front month contracts finishing up as much as one hundred thirty points on the session and December adding forty points on the week. The move came alongside a softer dollar — the index off thirty-two hundredths — and crude oil gaining one dollar fifteen per barrel, with managed money adding to long positions according to the latest Commitment of Traders data. A constructive setup heading into the weekend.
Shifting to real estate, investors weighing exposure to the sector through ETFs are increasingly sizing up Vanguard's VNQ against State Street's RWR. The core distinction comes down to cost and scale — VNQ carries a lower expense ratio and commands significantly larger assets under management, giving it a liquidity edge that matters in volatile rate environments where real estate tends to feel the pressure first.
And on the macro front, a striking argument out of Fortune and McKinsey: the United States spends more on healthcare than any nation on earth, yet Americans are on track to spend more years in poor health by two thousand fifty than they did in two thousand. That gap between spending and outcomes represents a structural drag on workforce productivity and long-term economic growth that policymakers can no longer afford to ignore.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
