By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finished higher Tuesday, pressing towards the 87.00-cent mark. Its recovery was peripherally inspired by the Chicago grains halting their bearish declines, but more directly, the emergence of supremely hot weather for West Texas.

For the next several days, West Texas is scheduled to suffer triple-digit temperatures. Although cotton’s development favors high temperatures, it is not impervious to “caving” in extreme heat. Along with that information, some other weather outlooks are now suggesting a dry spell of 10-plus days.

Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its updated monetary policy. Traders are not anticipating any direct tweaking of interest rates, but are keen on what clues Chairman Powell might reveal in his post meeting Q&A session.

The director general of the state-run India Meteorological Department on Tuesday indicated above-average monsoon activity for the sub-continent. Large areas of western and central India have received more than 90% of their total annual precipitation, while and southern and northwestern India has received some 50% to 75% of their total annual rainfall.

The monsoon is expected to be well distributed, and most parts of the country are expected to receive an average to an above-average amount of monsoon rains in 2021. The Indian summer monsoon typically lasts from June through September.

Tuesday, July closed at 85.28 cents, up 0.33 cent, December settled at 86.80 cents, up 0.67 cent and March 2022 ended at 86.59 cents, 0.61 cent higher; estimated volume was 32,341 contracts.