The cotton market was moderately lower Monday as it spent the day watching the Dow Jones cascade some 500 points lower while the U.S. dollar zoomed upwards. The Dow and other financial markets broke on the cumulative negative Trump news from the weekend. There has been talk of campaign financial laws being violated by the President, which is a felony.

That story, along with the arrest of a Chinese technology corporate officer has caused deeper diplomatic anxieties between the U.S. and China. In fact, a Chinese court ruled on Monday that Apple could not sell iPhones in China. Another event was the long-awaited vote on Brexit by the British Parliament that was pulled at the last moment. That action shot the U.S. dollar higher, but killed the euro and the pound.

Tuesday, the cotton market will have an opportunity to trade on its own fundamentals. USDA will release the December crop report at high noon. The 2018 crop is expected to be lower by 250,000 bales, along with declines in domestic and world ending stocks. However, the export category is the big unknown.

To that end, we are thinking the government will leave exports unchanged since the U.S. and China are in tepid talks over their trade differences. Over the weekend, official Chinese trade data continues to show her economy slowing. Total exports were 5.4% lower in November, which was an 8-month low.

Monday’s estimated volume 18,400 contracted traders.

Mach cotton settled at 79.88 cents, down 35 cents, July was 81.46 cents, off 27 cents, and December 2019 finished at 77.63, down 40 cents.