Traders may have been hoping for a Turnaround Tuesday in cotton Tuesday to counter the bearish effect of Monday’s sell-off, but all the market gave them was “a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” March cotton sold off and closed under the crucial and psychological 78.00-cent mark.

Not even a rebounding Dow could stabilize cotton’s weakness. Volume, however, was a restrained 18,200 contracts, but such is the legacy of holiday trading. Essentially, with the domestic cash market operating in dribbles, few merchants are wanting to buy cotton, and even fewer are willing to bullishly speculate on it.

Monday night, President Xi gave something of a hawkish speech on Chinese national television Tuesday. His talk slanted towards China possibly taking a harder line with the U.S. on trade and intellectual property rights. Those two issues have the world’s two largest economies at odds with one another, hence the trade war.

There are some political pundits who think the Xi speech was just political rhetoric aimed at shoring up his own reputation among the Chinese people. Nonetheless, there is no trade deal, although the March 1 deadline for some sort of resolution remains in place.

Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision, and with or without Fed action, volatility is expected to be wild. Higher rates would translate in a higher U.S. dollar and potential harm to the U.S. economy, while no action might suggest the Fed sees a worsening U.S. economy. To reiterate, either way will caused some deep angst among traders and investors.

March cotton settled 77.85 cents, down .069 cent, July was 80.08 cents, off .056 cent, and December 2019 was 76.83 cents, down .046 cent.