Despite evidence of widespread crop devastation to the southeastern cotton crop, the market finished fractionally lower on moderate volume. All forms of social media provided a grim description of Hurricane Michael’s devastation, yet the market essentially ignored the troubles. Estimated volume was about 26,200 contracts traded.

By ignoring the massive crop losses, the market may be signaling that it wants irrefutable evidence, and more importantly, an end to the U.S./China trade war. The U.S. midterm elections may hold the key.

In our opinion, if the Republicans hold both houses of Congress, the Chinese may feel pressure to fix the fuss. However, if the Democrats take over, China may continue to wage the trade war until the new powers-that-be repeals all tariffs.

USDA will issue its weekly sales and exports this Thursday. Last week, U.S. sales improved as Spot Cotton was below the 80-cent market. The big picture: U.S. Dollar remains strong, the 2018 harvest will resume in full force over the next few days and speculators continue to liquidate long positions.

December cotton settled at $0.7833, down 39 points, March cotton was $0.7978, down 6 points, and Red December ended at $0.7680, up 2 points.