By Keith Brown, DTN Cotton Correspondent 

Unfortunately, our broken-record comments of cotton following the Dow remains a fact. After being higher Tuesday morning, the Dow cascaded lower, nearly a 1000 lower, even as the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by one-half percent.

If people assume the low was in, or that the worst was over regarding the coronavirus, perhaps they had better become a tad more open-minded. While it may be true that the worst may be over for China, the real fear is how direct and how deep the virus punish the U.S.

Another negative for cotton may be the extent of economic damage done to China. Weekend reports indicate Chinese auto sales are off 90%, while the general consensus says its manufacturing sector is contracting.

Thursday’s exports-sales will be the next cotton-direct fundamental, which might shore up the market. Of late, seasonal sales have been very strong and the hope of the trade is that foreign buyers are active on this Corona break.

The cotton market remains technically vulnerable as it has been down eight out of the last nine sessions. To that end, May cotton is down on the year 6.30 cents.

For Tuesday, May cotton closed at 62.77 cents, down 0.61 cent, July ended at 63.56 cents, down 0.50 cent and December cotton finished at 63.83 cents, down 0.47 cent. Estimated volume was 39,078 contracts.