Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

In a classic counter-Monday trade, cotton sloughed off steep losses to settle up on the day. What was interesting about the positive close was that most of the immediate fundamentals were seen as bearish. Those aspects included improved crop ratings from USDA, Pelosi's landing in Taiwan and a stronger U.S. dollar.    

Crude oil was higher Tuesday as traders worried that this week's meeting of OPEC+ producers may not lead to a further boost in inventories. The cartel, including Russia, will meet on Wednesday. Two of eight members said a modest output hike would be discussed, while the balance said a boost was unlikely.    

The Dow Jones was weaker Tuesday, as investors weighed increased tensions between the U.S. and China over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit. Additionally, certain comments from Federal Reserve Presidents about the central bank's path forward, suggest the Fed is not even close to ending interest rates hikes.    

For Tuesday, December closed at 94.81 cents, up 0.75 cent, March 2023 finished at 92.58 cents, up 1.11 cents and July 2023 settled at 89.28 cents, 1.05 cents higher; estimated volume was 22,215 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com (c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.